Not Waiting Anymore
by fluffy2001
Summary: Now complete! New part of the House Assessment series, season 3 POV. Chase is a diagnostic attending, Cameron and Foreman have moved on but are there for support, House is in a mess with Tritter and Chase has to hold everything together.
1. No Worries

**a/n: I was never ever going to do a sequel of the House Assessment/ Adverse Conditions/No matter series until Tuesday night's episode when someone pointed out to me that record keeping wise that this season Cameron has been the primary doc on six patients, Foreman six, and Chase one. I got this idea of what happened if the Tritter mess happened during this alternate scenario that these fics created in which Chase is a diagnostic attending trying to handle everything thrown at him. This will be season three Chase, confident and not afraid to stand up to House, and he gets to be a mentor to a young intern. **

**So, if anyone hasn't read any of the above stories, I recommend the House Assessment. It isn't that long, it is funny, easy to read, and it will explain how Chase became a diagnostic attending. I think Adverse Conditions and No Matter are decent, but they are much lengthier so below is the synopsis that you will need to know for this fic if you don't want to read them.**

**Chase was promoted to diagnostic attending and required to run cases by himself often at the same time House had his own cases. Cameron's fellowship expired six months later and she moved onto a Specialist of Diagnostic Immunology position in another department. Foreman got his own research grant in brain stimulation studies and left the same time Cameron did. Chase was asked out on a date by an ICU nurse named Natalie. House was back from the shooting so this story takes place a few months later around the time of Finding Judas. **

**This one is dedicated to merlin71/clarkangel. I hope it cheers you up!**

**-------------------------------**

Chapter 1 – No Worries

"What the hell happened to you?"

Chase knew that Natalie would panic the second she saw him; the second she saw that large and bulging purple mark on his jaw line. He should feel pleased that she cared so much, but he felt rather embarrassed instead.

"House hit me."

"He what?? I hope Cuddy fired his ass or gave him some sort of reprimand."

Chase knew she wouldn't understand his response to that statement. "I asked her not to."

Natalie shook her head and threw her arms up in the air. "Why is the world did you do that?" She said with raised voice. "He should at least be arrested for assault."

Chase took her hand and gave her a sweet pleasing smile. He was over what ever rage he was feeling earlier from the punch and wanted to put it behind him. "Look, my jaw hurts like hell. How about you come over after your shift and help me ice it down? You're a nurse. I know there are many ways you can make it feel better."

Natalie gave him a suggestive grin in return. "Okay, if you think I can help. I'm sure I can heal you."

They shared a warm soft kiss, which ended when Chase started wincing in pain. "I'll see you later."

She gave him an endearing gaze that echoed slight concern as she brushed past him on the way to finishing her shift. She couldn't help but worry about him. They had only been going out a few months, but those have been great months for them personally but hard professionally. His life has been a nightmare since House pissed off that detective. It angered her to no end that the innocents were getting hurt. Even Drs. Cameron and Foreman were getting squeezed and they haven't worked for House in a few months. It all had been hardest on Robert though. He was stuck with trying to run diagnostics, deal with an uneven and unpredictable House, not to mention make sure he wasn't in trouble himself.

They just got over the scare when his accounts were frozen, but that ended up being only day. She was there to offer him any financial support he needed in terms of food and bare necessities, but she couldn't help more than that. Luckily she didn't have to. Now he had to deal with physical assault from the one person in his life he most respected. She wasn't sure how well that would go over. She had her work cut out for her this evening, but Robert was worth it.

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"Chase!" House shouted as he spotted his doctor walking by his office toward the conference room. Chase rolled his eyes and reluctantly went in to see what he wanted.

"Why don't we have anymore candidates for fellows? You and Randall alone just aren't cutting it. I need fresh faces and a variety of people torment. My clever witticisms don't work with everybody."

"You never talk to Randall. Apparently I'm the only one allowed to talk to him. He isn't even allowed in here when you are around. You know, he might be useful in a differential sometime and he's fun to pick on."

House chuckled. "Please, only grown-ups at our party. He sits at the kiddie table with the other fresh faced young'uns."

"We have been through this. First you wouldn't hire any of the candidates Cameron and I recommended a month and a half ago after a long screening process. Now we can't have fellows until your legal problems are all resolved. Cuddy seems to think you are going to jail and will lose your license."

"Cuddy is being paranoid."

"You're preaching to the choir here. Maybe you should be having this conversation with her? Unless your detoxing has given you delusions I'm Cuddy dressed as a man."

"More like Cuddy dressed as a freak. Men don't dress the way you do. That green striped shirt and yellow tie are making me queasy. We need a 'what not to wear' intervention here."

"Insulting me isn't going to fix things with Cuddy."

"Are you sure you aren't Wilson in an ugly outfit? Because you're sounding like him now. Anyway, the hearing is tomorrow. It should all be resolved then."

"Pardon me if I don't share your optimism."

"Pardon me if I think your attitude stinks. If you will excuse me, you're boring me today. I need three of you to pick on. You're too easy."

House hadn't been in a good mood for a long while, so why should today be any different? This entire Tritter mess really made it almost impossible for the department to function. At least Chase was getting a little help. Joshua Randall was the new diagnostics intern; a young, sharp, and ambitious kid who just like everyone else was now being addressed by his last name. House actually hired him because of the way the dark-haired, brown-eyed inquisitive young man with dorky glasses challenged him while giving his now infamous lecture on leg pain. He was freshly graduated from medical school and brought onto the overloaded, missing two doctors diagnostics team at the right moment. House instantly assigned Randall to Chase and made Chase his immediate supervisor, stipulating he didn't have time to mentor an intern. Then after making that decision House went back to playing his newly acquired PSP.

Other than Randall, assistance from various nurses, and the occasional consult with Cameron, Chase was doing most of the procedures and tests on his own for both his and House's patients with intern in tow watching him. House couldn't get his own intern or nurse for immediate help because no one would work alone for the miserable SOB, especially when word got out he was under investigation.

Randall was proving to be a valuable asset to the team, which made a big difference given their dire circumstances. Chase was too new an attending to sponsor a fellowship if House did get some jail time and lord knew what would happen to their department if House couldn't practice medicine again. Despite Cuddy's assurances that he and Randall would not end up on the street, he still didn't feel very confident.

"What'd you got?" Chase asked when his young intern who was obviously looking for him finally tracked him down in the hall. In his hand was a file and it looked new.

"29 year old female, no prior history of health problems. She came in with stiff joints and muscles and swollen lymph nodes to the clinic two weeks ago. They told her it was the flu and sent her home. They rushed her to the ER this morning when she fainted. She is still experiencing those symptoms plus now seeing dark spots in her eyes."

"Blood tests, CBC?"

"Positive for mononucleosis."

Chase didn't think that was right. "Mono doesn't cause focal necrotizing retinitis."

"That's why I just spent an hour getting a better history."

"Any cats?"

"Nope."

"Exposure to raw meat?"

"Vegetarian. I know, I was thinking toxoplasmosis too, but I need you to authorize the test."

"She has no prior history? Complications like this usually happen to the immunocompromised."

"She said she has never been sick, and so far there are no medical records to refute that. Her family doctor has given her a clean bill of health since she was a child. She runs three miles a day."

Chase grabbed the chart and signed the lab request. "We'll need to check for myocarditis and encephalitis too. If her vision is distorted and it is toxoplasmosis, lord knows what other complications might exist. I'll schedule a CAT scan."

Randall took the chart back and hurried off to do his duty. Chase sadly smiled at the notion that he had such a sharp intern, but also knew that if the kid was right, they had a lot of work ahead on this patient. Reactions of this type are rare and usually a sign of something far worse.

---------------------------------

"Your face is improving. That shade of brownish-yellow makes you look sickly now instead of just battered." Foreman had to tease about the situation. Chase getting socked by his boss was now hospital folklore.

"Yeah, I get a lot of sympathy from the nurses. The bruise could be on your face and no one would know the difference. You'd be missing out." Chase replied in a tired voice. He was too out of it to come back with his usual flare.

"How bad are things?" Foreman noticed how weary former colleague was. He and Chase got together at lunch or after work every once in a while. Chase joked that they were slowly becoming House and Wilson. Foreman reacted by threatening to smack him. Since House had already done that, he would now need to come up with a new threat.

"Bad. I can barely keep up, and now I have to watch for violent outbursts and general poor judgment. Luckily we are caseless right now. I think Cuddy has a lot to do with that."

"You still helping your intern pick his specialty?"

"I think he's leaning toward cardiology, but he is showing an interest in rheumatology. I'm trying to turn him off that. Luckily he's got a while to decide."

"Did you tell him who your dad was?"

"Nope. The less he knows about me, and I about him the better."

"Didn't House tell us differently during our reviews?"

"Yeah, well I'm not House and I'm certainly not going to be the lousy supervisor he is. I know all I need to know and the rest we'll figure out when appropriate."

"You're sounding pretty bitter there. Still hurting from the punch?"

"Nope, I'm over it. I'm just trying not to become the junior version of House. I'd like to think I'm better than that."

Foreman wasn't convinced at all. "Right, you're over it," he said with huge sarcasm.

Chase's pager went off. His face went to a look of slight defeat as he read the message. "Oh no, it's Cuddy. Damn, I've got to take this one." He got up and placed the rest of his sandwich in his pocket. "I'll catch you later."

"Later, and good luck." Foreman smiled as he was able to finish his lunch without interruption. The lab was certainly not calling him with an emergency. He thought he would miss all the action from treating patients, but he strangely wasn't missing it at all. Maybe he never will.

-----------------------------

A page to Cuddy's office was never a good thing, especially lately. He had been getting quite a few of those. Cuddy had such a blind faith in House that when he stopped performing his duties properly she still felt it to be in her best interest to check up on Chase often. Her diagnostics department was what the hospital reputation was built on, which was kind of a risky move at best since it was run by a loose cannon. Now it could easily all fall apart if House went to jail. Chase knew he brought value to the department, but by reputation alone he was no House.

"You look tired Dr. Chase," Cuddy told him as he entered the office.

"No more than usual. I'm fine."

"Great, well, we have a new situation. House has just checked himself into rehab."

Chase buried his head in his right hand. "The hearing didn't go well I take it."

"It went. Anyway, when Tritter wouldn't let up he decided it would make a good show. We have no idea how long he will be there. It could be a few days, it could be a few weeks. What cases do you have?"

"We just got one yesterday. Randall is running some tests now."

"You are free to use Dr. Cameron if you need to. Given the special circumstances I was able to free up some of her time."

"Good, because I was probably going to contact her for consult anyway."

"I want frequent updates on how the case goes. House can be disturbed if things get too desperate."

"We won't need him." Chase adamantly declared.

"Don't be afraid to use him. Who knows, it might actually do him some good."

Chase nodded as if her point was understood, but the look on his face also told her right back that he wasn't eager to do that. He left the office and went off to find his intern. He felt lucky they still had a job to do.

-------------------------------------------

"Positive for Toxoplasma gondii parasite." Randall handed Chase the results. Chase at first tried to figure out how his intern knew all his hiding spots. How did he learn about the obgyn lounge? Chase knew all of House's spots so it was all inevitable he guessed. Still, he learned so fast.

The results weren't what he wanted to hear. Now they would have to go through the full battery of tests to see if their patient's poor immunity was causing other damage. He needed to call in help.

"Come on, it's time we visited Dr. Cameron."

As they walked down the hall, Randall found it to be an ideal time to get updated on the latest events. "I haven't seen Dr. House around in a while. Not that I ever get to see him, but it is usually noticeable when he is not around."

"He's in rehab. Don't know when he'll be back."

"Rehab? Uh, wow. I never thought he would agree to that. I don't have to talk to him to know that surrender is not his style."

"I'm sure it wasn't his preference. As usual House seems to think a last ditch effort at something will impress people. I'm thinking a judge isn't going to be easily fooled since he could have done this weeks ago when all the trouble started."

"You aren't optimistic?"

"If there is one thing I have learned about House is that he is the luckiest son of a bitch alive. Things don't look good, but he has gotten out of bad messes before. One has to wonder though when his luck will finally run out. I don't know what to think." Chase turned toward Randall for final words before going into Cameron's office. "We have to focus on doing our jobs. Everything else will work itself out."

Chase opened the door. "You aren't going to knock?" Cameron asked with slight offense to his rudeness.

"You knew I was coming," Chase answered rather sharply.

"You have been working for House too long. It is called a sign of respect. It happens."

"At least you have an office to complain about me barging into. I don't see you knocking on the conference room door. Anyway, did Cuddy talk to you? We have a case we need some help with." Chase handed her the file.

Cameron took a minute to examine the case as her eyes grew wide and mouth slightly opened. "The problems causing this condition could be endless. No prior history of anything?"

"Randall here took a page from the Allison Cameron school of taking patient histories. He left nothing unturned. Of course he is still too green to know what everybody lies means, but I'm confident he will learn that through patient deception like the rest of us."

Cameron turned to Randall. "An Englishman wanted to transform himself into an Irishman, so he visited a doctor to find out how he could achieve this. 'Well' said the doctor, 'this is a very delicate operation and there is a lot that can go wrong, but I will need to remove half your brain'. 'Yeah, that's OK' said the Englishman. 'All my life I've wanted to be Irish so I'm prepared to take the risk.' The operation went ahead and sometime later the Englishman awoke to find a look of horror on the face of the doctor. 'I'm terribly sorry!' the doctor said. 'Instead of removing half the brain, I've taken the whole brain out.' The patient replied, 'No worries, mate!!'"

Chase gave Cameron the cold chill stare while she and Randall snickered at the obvious Australian put down. Chase then glared down his young intern, who in recognition that the un-amused Aussie was his boss, stopped immediately.

"Just let me know when you need me and I'll be there," Cameron said backpedaling into nice mode.

"We will be doing a CAT scan now, so we'll let you know." Chase and Randall got up to leave.

"Have a good one Chase, and tell House I said hello."

"I'm not going to bother him while he is in rehab."

Cameron laughed. "Yeah right. Face it, you're screwed. You are going to need all the help you can get."

"Tell me something I don't know." Chase grabbed his intern and they went off to do their jobs.

**a/n: Potential? I can never tell once I write these things. I have ideas, but there needs to be interest. Thanks for reading!**


	2. She's Hiding Something

"Good afternoon Miss Edwards, I'm Dr. Chase."

The young woman was alert and sitting up in her bed, stunned as if she was seeing an apparition. "I was beginning to think you didn't exist. Dr. Randall certainly dropped your name a lot. I think he did it so I wouldn't believe that Doogie Howser was handling my care. Although you don't look much older."

"Sorry, I've been otherwise occupied. Did Dr. Randall explain the CAT scan?"

"Yes, he did that very we'll. He's a smart kid that will make a great doctor someday when he grows up."

"You don't remember anything unusual happening before you got sick?"

"Unusual? I live a very boring and very structured life. I would have remembered unusual."

"Maybe you tried a different type of food, ate at a different restaurant?"

"Nope, all the same. Besides, what sort of toxin or bacteria would exist to make me this sick so fast? Wouldn't there be some reported cases like this?"

"That's the problem, the possibilities are endless. That's what the tests are going to find out."

The woman nodded, actually satisfied with what she was being told. "Okay, I suppose that makes sense. So you basically show up for the important stuff while junior there gets all the menial tasks?"

"Yep, that's the way it works." Chase had to admit, he did like having a patient that could see through all the crap and still take it in stride.

"I'm a customer service manager. I know all about passing on the grunt work."

Chase got up and gave her a reassuring smile. "Dr. Randall is going to take you down to radiology. I'll be down there shortly."

"Great, can't wait."

------------------------

"You sure you don't want to tag along for old times sake?"

"Not in a million years," Foreman declared. "There's a reason why House always sent you to do the break-ins after a while. No one would suspect the baby faced white guy. So the CAT scan was perfectly normal?"

"Yep, not a thing wrong with the heart or brain. This woman seems too perfect. There's a deep dark secret hiding there and I'm gonna find it."

"Take your intern. Has he ever been on a search?"

"That's true, he would only be tried as a juvenile." Chase joked. "I've never taken him before because it's hard to train someone to know what to look for during an illegal search."

"Let him figure it out on his own. We had to. Besides, you'll be there to cover what he missed."

"Yeah you're probably right. It's always fun to show them things that med school never taught them."

Foreman laughed. He remembered the education from House all too well. "Have you been upstairs to visit House at all?"

"Nope, and I have no intention of visiting. He needs his space."

"I was thinking of dropping by, if anything to see how much being cooped up with nothing to do is driving him crazy."

"You'll have to let me know how he is then."

Foreman laughed again at Chase's pitiful resolve. "He'll find a way to bother you. When he gets bored and sets his mind to something, he's impossible."

"You mean the tons of pages and messages on my phone haven't been enough? I'll deal with him when the time is right. In the meantime, I've got some breaking and entering to do."

"Don't get caught and I'm not bailing you out." Foreman chuckled to himself as the distressed Aussie went on his way. He went back to his research studies. Still wasn't missing the excitement.

----------------------

"Why do we break into peoples homes?"

"We aren't technically breaking in since we took her key."

"We are searching her private property without her permission. I didn't go to law school, but I'm pretty sure I know the difference." Randall may have questioned the logic, but he knew his protests weren't going to stop his determined mentor.

"I've been doing this for three years and have never been caught."

"There's always a first time."

"Very good Randall. You are picking up on our department pessimism very well." Chase opened the door and they entered the apartment. "Anyway, Dr. House has always contended that everybody lies, so we search the homes of patients without their knowledge so we find what they aren't telling us. It has proven to be a very effective strategy."

"Illegal and immoral too."

"Yeah, that too, although the patients tend to forgive us when they walk out of the hospital breathing."

They did an initial scan of the apartment only to find a meticulously clean and orderly place. Too clean and too orderly. "So what are we looking for?" Randall asked as he saw nothing unusual at first glance.

"Anything that could cause a disease."

"Air does that."

"Not this air. You see the air cleaner over there. There isn't hardly any dust around either. We'll check the kitchen first."

Randall took time to admire the carefully placed organization of every item. "Not one thing is out of place. She must practice feng shui."

"More power to her. I don't have that sort of time." Chase opened the refrigerator to find it was very clean with only a few fresh vegetables and milk inside of it. He handed Randall the vegetables. "We always test for pesticides." The cupboards had a few cans of organic tomatoes and several jars of natural peanut butter. The kitchen counters were wiped down and disinfected as well as the sink. They opened the cabinet under the sink and found a perfectly clean area that showed no evidence of even a water stain. "We always check under the sinks for mold. Kitchen's clean, let's try the bedroom next."

They went into the bedroom where the bed was made and not scrap of clothing lied around loosely. "No one ever died from an unmade bed. Erma Bombeck called this behavior sick. I'd have to agree." Chase started going through the drawers.

"Should we be doing that?" Randall objected. "Her underwear and stuff is in there."

"The and stuff is what we need to know." Chase found searching the drawers to be easy since everything was neatly folded. "Hmm."

"What's so interesting?"

"That there is nothing interesting. There is not a piece of lingerie here anywhere. Even her underwear looks grandma-ish."

"You like looking at women's lingerie?"

"We have to determine how often she is having sex and if she has a boyfriend."

"Uh,"

"What is it?"

"She made me promise not to tell anyone, but she told me she was a virgin."

Chase wasn't sure if he was more shocked by his intern withholding info or the fact that a 29 year old virgin existed. "That would have been good to know."

"It wasn't relevant plus it looks like you wouldn't have believed her anyway."

"It is relevant and...and you have a point there. There doesn't seem to be anything in here. The bathroom is all that is left."

The bathroom, just like the rest of the place, was sparkling clean, sanitized and didn't have a spot of dirt or grime anywhere. "Organic shampoo, we'll take that to test." Chase opened the medicine cabinet. "Vitamin C and Folic acid. Why would a perfectly healthy virgin want to take folic acid? We'll take these too."

Chase had never had so few samples from a search in his messenger bag before. He seemed rather disappointed as they headed back into the living room.

"Why are you so bummed out?" Randall figured a clean search was a good thing.

"We didn't find the hidden secret."

"Maybe she doesn't have one."

"Everyone has one. It just isn't here." Chase spotted the stack of mail on the kitchen counter hoping to find something there. "Even her mail is nothing but bills and junk mail. I don't see a computer, so she's probably not having a secret life on the internet either. We might have to check her workplace next." Chase took one more long look around, hoping to spot any other clue that he may have missed. Finally, he gave up in defeat. "Come on, there is nothing more to see here."

-----------------------------

Chase and Randall headed over to check on their patient. Chase was most curious as to why she would be taking Folic Acid as a supplement. The primary reason was for women that wanted to get pregnant, although it was often used as a preventative for heart disease, cancer, and depression. She was sleeping when they arrived. Chase gave her a slight nudge. "Miss Edwards?"

She only half opened her eyes and could barely get out a few words. "You're back," she wearily replied.

Chase didn't like the looks of the groggy response. He grabbed his light pen and checked her eyes. "Miss Edwards, are you in pain?"

"My stomach feels sick."

"What is it?" Randall asked feeling the same alarm as his mentor.

Chase noticed the slow reaction of the pupils and then checked the monitor. "She's severely lethargic. Her pulse is rapid."

Miss Edwards began to gag. "Grab the basin," Chase instructed Randall. He managed to get it under her mouth just in time for her to empty the contents of her stomach.

Chase started examining the abdomen next. He noticed the slight bloating. "What's her temperature?"

Randall put down the basin once since she had finished her puking and got her temperature. "99.9". His report was quickly interrupted when she started wheezing. Randall quickly grabbed the oxygen mask and placed it over her face. As he was putting it on he noticed yet another complication. "Her lips are starting to swell."

"She's reacting to the Pyrimethamine. We need to stop the dose now."

Miss Edwards started to calm down once she was able to take in the fresh oxygen. She then fell back into sleep. Chase checked her eyes again to make sure she hadn't lost consciousness and did one more check of vitals. He took in a sigh of relief when he figured out she was just exhausted.

Chase motioned Randall over to the far side of the room. "I want you to stay with her, make sure that there aren't other complications and that she stops vomiting. The drug should be out of her system in a few hours, we will see if the reaction clears up. I'm going to look into other ways to treat the toxoplasmosis. Page me if anything happens."

"I will Dr. Chase." Randall replied, more than ready for the assigned task.

Chase nodded and left the room. He hoped it was just a reaction to the drug. All those symptoms could easily be signs of other things, but the drug was the best possible explanation for now.

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"Why if it isn't Calvin and Hobbes," Cuddy said as she entered the rehab waiting area.

"House was just apologizing to me. Come over here, you have to hear this. It will never happen again." Wilson was having too much fun with this moment.

"I swear it's the brainwashing they do here. I don't remember saying such a thing." House cheekily replied. He turned to Wilson. "I'm never cutting you a break again."

Wilson laughed. "I'll see you later House. Great talking to you."

House scowled as Wilson left.

"You actually apologized to Wilson?" Cuddy said as she took Wilson's place. "I suppose that took too much out of you to give me one as well."

"Yep, you're dead on there."

"So what was so important that I had to come and see you now?"

House tried his best to appear humbled. "Look, I need a favor."

Cuddy beamed a smirk of satisfaction. She liked being in a position of control. "You need something from me?"

"Stop enjoying this. Anyway, I'm going stir crazy here. I need to know what is going on with my department, but Chase is ignoring my pages."

"I just happen to agree with Chase. You need to focus on getting better."

"In order to get better I need to have puzzles to distract me. That will certainly suppress the urge for opiates."

"I don't know. Chase has a patient but I'm sure he doesn't need you getting in the middle of it."

"I promise to be good. I'll offer consultation and let him make the final decision."

Cuddy laughed at such an absurd comment. "What kind of idiot do you think I am? There is no way you will let him have the final say."

House broke out the puppy dog eyes and quivering lip that he had used on Cuddy many times before. "Come on, give an addict a break."

Cuddy hated herself for caving like a cheap rug, but it was pointless to argue. If she didn't allow it, he'd find another way. "Okay, I'll talk to Chase and ask him to share some details."

House offered a smile that mixed both fake sincerity with pleasure over pushing her buttons. "Gee, thanks boss."

Cuddy gave him the usual look of skepticism and uncertainty that this was a good idea as she got up to leave. "Just try to not be a pain in the ass while you are here. I have to deal with these people too."

"Me? I'm a model patient."

Cuddy left throwing him one last look of contempt before taking off to find Chase. This wasn't going to go over well, so she would have to play the boss card again.

**a/n: The purpose of this chapter is to just build plot and momentum. Hopefully there is enough in here to keep you interested in more. Chapter three involves a differential and more House causing trouble. **


	3. Learning the Hard Way

"The drug should be out of her system by now, but the symptoms are still there. Something else is wrong." Randall was still on a rush from tending to a seriously ill patient all afternoon. Normally he only got to do the routine stuff.

"Wow, this coffee is fantastic!" Cameron noticed as she took a sip from her freshly poured cup.

"Yeah, I get that blend from a specialty foods store near my apartment. The key is to make it with filtered water." Randall knew the best way to win over his superiors. Sucking up 101.

"That's why I think House really hired him. He put each intern applicant through the coffee making test." Chase headed to the white board to add to the list of known symptoms.

_Drowsiness, vomiting, diarrhea, wheezing, rapid pulse, fever, bloating, swollen lips_

After taking a pause to look at the list, Chase added one more symptom to the board. _OCD_

"You think she's obsessive compulsive?" Cameron was surprised at that finding.

"Her place was too clean and orderly. That just ain't right."

"I've never heard of anyone getting sick over being a neat freak."

Chase couldn't get over such an analysis from an immunologist of all people. "She has Mysophobia and it's all probably catching up with her. Exposure to just one parasite could set off a chain reaction that results in who knows what. Randall said she told him she was a virgin. That's classic avoidance of activities that involve un-cleanliness."

"Oh, no, there can never be women out there that are actually waiting for the right man to come along." Cameron sharply remarked.

"We know that's not your hang up." Chase shot back. The look of scorn on Cameron's face could have killed him if she had the right power. Randall just sat there with a big smile on his face, watching back and forth as these two went at it.

"Those symptoms are also typical of encephalitis. You sure she doesn't have that?" Cameron went back to the task at hand.

"I think I can read results of a CAT scan. She also wasn't complaining of headache or stiff neck."

"Maybe it isn't there yet but is on its way."

"Thus, it's still not encephalitis."

"Maybe it's already happened since the CAT scan." Randall piped in. The other two just looked at him, probably in shock for they had forgotten that he was there.

"All the symptoms aren't there. We need a few more signs to conclude that. In the meantime, aren't we overlooking the obvious? Why such a severe reaction to the toxoplasmosis? Especially for someone so healthy?"

The room grew quiet as there was no answer. "Differential." Chase ordered.

"Cool, I have never been in one of these." Randall said rather excitedly.

"Okay Randall, you first."

The excitement on his face dropped when he realized that he didn't have a single thing to contribute. Then he thought of something. "Genetic disease?"

"Yeah, that narrows it down to the thousands. Good call." Chase turned to the white board and started going through the possibilities in his mind. "HIV is not likely since she has never had sex supposedly or a blood transfusion."

"Malfunction of the thymus gland?" Cameron suggested.

"CBC showed t-cell count as normal." Chase by now was hoping that the white board would deliver the answers. He soon remembered that tactic rarely worked for House either. "There is no rash, so Sarcoidosis is out. Liver function is normal, so that rules out Hepatitis."

"Crohn's disease? Maybe the bloating isn't from the diarrhea? It usually takes years for the symptoms to progress."

Chase didn't like that suggestion. "Isn't Crohn's a reaction with absence of any known invader? There is a known parasite in her system."

"That parasite isn't intestinal. It could have let to autoimmune hemolytic anemia, which would compromise her autoimmunity."

"Randall here has already run a series of autoimmune tests, including a Coombs test. Antibodies were normal."

Randall went to open his mouth, but Chase cut him off. "We have a rule since Dr. Foreman left. It's never lupus."

Randall closed his mouth and retreated from his suggestion.

"CVID." Cameron declared.

Chase ran the suggestion through his head by going through the symptoms one by one. "That's possible. It explains several of the symptoms. There is an absence of lymphoid hyperplasia, but most of it fits. Randall, run a test for immunoglobulin G levels."

He nodded and quickly left to do his task. "Aww, he's like a little puppy. Can we keep him?" Cameron asked cutely.

Chase placed the marker down and sat next to Cameron at the table. "At least one of us has youthful enthusiasm. He hasn't been house broken yet."

"Ha ha ha, _house_ broken. You made a funny."

"How long did it take before House ruined us?" Chase lamented.

"For me, about a year." Cameron replied.

"I can't figure out an exact time frame. I consider it a slow decent into madness."

"So you're probably bat shit crazy by now."

"Yeah, I think so." Chase replied smiling.

Cameron got up. "You need a break. Go get laid with your girlfriend."

"Is that a differential on my personal life?" Before Cameron could answer, Chase's pager went off. He grabbed his head in frustration. "Damn, it's Cuddy again. Is it time for my head to explode yet? I think I will need to find Natalie once I'm done."

Cameron laughed as she headed out the door. "Sucks to be you."

--------------------------------------------------------

Cuddy's office was becoming a familiar sight. Chase had a very good idea what she wanted to talk to him about just by the expression on her face. "You saw House."

"Yes and I think you know what this is about."

"I don't need him getting involved in my case from rehab, especially when Randall and I have it under control."

"He is still the Director of Diagnostic Medicine. He has a right to know what is happening."

"Not from rehab he doesn't."

"Chase I don't want to have to order you to do it."

Chase lowered his head. He knew butting heads with the Dean of Medicine was not going to do him any favors. "I suppose I don't have a choice."

"He promises you have final say."

"You actually believed that? So that means I'll have your full backing when he breaks his promise." Chase antagonistically replied.

"Chase, he needs something to keep his mind occupied. I really think it will help him. It wouldn't hurt to share a few details."

He got up, knowing that it was pointless to set himself up to be belligerent to his bosses' boss. "I'll play along, but it won't stop at a few pointless details. I might as well just hand the case over to him now."

Cuddy silently watched Chase leave. She wasn't going to hold his attitude against him because she could tell she was hitting a sore spot. She hoped House would play nice, but she knew better.

----------------------------------------------------

"Funny, you aren't blond."

"No sir."

"Say bollocks."

"Bollocks sir?"

"Nope, you aren't British either."

Randall didn't think Dr. House was that stupid, but he thought to raise the point out of curiosity anyway. "I thought Dr. Chase was Australian."

"I don't have time to teach you world history. Wiki it. You're that kid, Romano."

"Randall sir."

"Whatever. Considering you aren't blond and don't talk in that faux British accent, you aren't Chase. Why are you here?"

"Dr. Chase is busy sir."

"Sir? Stop that. Sir is reserved for assholes like my father. I actually prefer something like, I don't know, Emperor."

"Uh, yes, si...Emperor."

"Good boy. So what's wrong with your patient that you need my brilliant mind to deduce?"

"Uh," House gave him a look of eagerly waiting to be addressed by the proper title, "Emperor, nothing is wrong that we can't handle. Dr. Chase wanted me to tell you we have it under control."

House chuckled. "Good boy, lying for your boss. He is training you well, except I'm the big kahuna and I sign your paycheck, so lying to me isn't very wise."

"Actually, Dr. Cuddy signs my paycheck which isn't all that much."

"Yes, but I have the ability to make your life so miserable you would be praying that you chose a career in fast food instead of medicine because of the low stress. Tell me about the patient."

"She's female."

"Nooooo." House said in a 'duh' like manner. "Tell me Randall, you like proctology? Because I'll make sure that I loan you out to every single department in this hospital for the sole purpose of anal exams, fecal sample gathering and analysis."

"29 year old white female, in perfect health until now. She contracted toxoplasmosis from an unknown source and developed complications. Her immune system is weakening and she isn't responding any of the medicines we are giving her."

"What are the symptoms?"

"She's lethargic, vomiting, diarrhea, rapid pulse, and fever."

"That's a reaction to the medication."

"Dr. Chase already figured that out. We stopped it but the symptoms haven't gone away."

"We need to fight the infection and then figure out why the immune system is shutting down."

"Something else Dr. Chase has already figured out. Dr. Cameron is consulting. We think it might be CVID."

"Cameron?" A big smile hit House's face. "Why didn't you say so? I don't need you anymore. She tells me everything. Tell Dr. Chase he is way off on the CVID. She would have one or more viral infections. He should start the patient on clindamycin for the toxoplasmosis. That will help with the encephalitis."

"She doesn't have encephalitis."

"She will soon. Something is weakening that immune system. I know that Chase probably ran all the standard autoimmune tests. When you get the IgA results back and its normal, what next?"

"How did you know we were running an IgA?" It took a few seconds for him to adjust to House's quick thinking. "Oh, because we haven't ruled out CVID. I'm really not privy to what is next, but I'm sure Dr. Chase has something planned."

House laughed at such a naïve statement. "He has no idea what to do next. He just has his 'everything is under control' front going. That is one reason why I hired him. He fakes it better than anyone. Go find out the plan and get back with me. I'll have something for you by then."

Randall sat there a little stunned, not sure exactly what had just happened there.

House leaned in really close and spoke softly, "This is the part where you run away."

"Yes, s..." House gave him the same condemning look as before. "Emperor." Randall made his quick exit. House chuckled as he watched him go. "Too easy. That's why I don't deal with interns."

----------------------------

"No way," Chase said in response to Randall's mention of House's recommendation. "Clindamycin will only aggravate the vomiting and diarrhea. Plus she doesn't have encephalitis."

"I told him that. He said she will."

"She isn't in the proper state to handle too many changes in medication. What else did he say?"

"He said you have no idea what to do next, he wants me to find out what you are going to do with IgA levels come back normal, and he wants me to call him Emperor."

Chase laughed. "When he saw on my application that I went to seminary school, he at first told me to call him 'Lord'. That went on for about a month before it got old."

"You went to seminary school?"

"Why do you seem so surprised?"

"You aren't the religious type, and I've heard the nurses talk about you."

"One important thing you will learn around here is don't always believe what you hear. You will learn quickly in this field how to see through clues what is real and what isn't."

"I agree, I have a lot to learn. Ten minutes with Dr. House beats three years of medical school."

Chase smiled at his student's distress. He forgot how long it had been since he had been that green. "So, did he use the proctology threat to get you to talk?"

Randall nodded.

"That one always works with the interns. Fellows know better, but that's a good threat for interns and first year residents."

"So what do I go back and tell him?"

"Nothing for right now. He's right, I'm not entirely sure what I'll do next. House always taught us though that sometimes you have to wait for something different. That's his plan and I'm sticking to it. I want you to stay and watch Miss Edwards tonight."

"What are you going to do?"

"What all attendings do in this case. Go home. Call me if anything changes."

Chase smiled as he left his puzzled intern in the dust. He had waited so long to do that to someone.

--------------------------

She had him at the brink. She was pushing him closer and closer to the edge. She felt so warm, so delightful, so exciting. Natalie had a gift for helping him let go and she wasn't disappointing tonight. There was one thing though that she forgot about. Something he forgot too. He was too eager to kiss her, to hold her, to pleasure her that he failed to take care of that most important detail. He forgot to turn off the pager.

"Aw shit," he said as it went off while he and Natalie were in the throws of passion.

"Ignore it," she told him, desperately panting.

They tried, but sure enough that irritating beep went off again. Sadly, it wasn't in reach to throw against a wall. They both came to the sad realization that the moment was now ruined.

Chase rolled out of bed in complete frustration and went to fetch the annoying device. He looked at the number on the pager and dialed. "What do you want Randall? ...When? ...Okay…Start her on tetracycline and get her into a clean room. I'll be in as soon as I can."

Chase closed his cell phone and took in a sigh of irritation. He glanced at the beautiful woman in his bed, threw down the phone and climbed back into bed grabbing onto Natalie tightly. "Don't you have to go?" she asked.

"I have a little time. Our patient's fever spiked, she had a seizure and lost consciousness. She probably has encephalitis. Randall has it under control."

Natalie laughed. "I bet this has happened to you a few times before, being a critical care specialist."

"First time actually. It's funny though, we have bothered House a few times while he has been with one of his hookers. We knew how expensive the hooker was based on the level of irritation when we paged him."

"Dr. House really uses hookers? I'm not surprised."

"I only bothered him once and boy did I pay for it. After that, I let Foreman or Cameron make the call. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. I'll need to get used to the fact that there is someone calling me now."

"Maybe we need to get your intern laid."

Chase laughed. "I think that would be considered statutory rape."

Natalie reached over to the end table and grabbed Chase's pager. She seductively slid her body onto his, held the pager in front of him, turned it off, and threw it across the room where it joined the cell phone. "Where were we?"

"Let's start from the beginning." He started kissing her wildly as they were on their way to finishing what they started.


	4. Digging For Theories

**a/n: Sorry for the slow update, but the snow that has struck my home state of Ohio has sucked my will to live, or at least my will to write. I hope that others out there buried in snow are coping better than I am. At least I managed to get this chapter out today. Happy reading!**

**----------------------------**

Chapter 4 – Digging for Theories

"I paged you over an hour ago." Randall was feeling rather uptight. It was likely the fatigue talking, but he was a little frustrated as well by the slow response.

"Sorry, I was in the middle of something. I got here as soon as I could." Chase always heard that one from House and never minded it, so he figured it would work for him.

"She's still unconscious. Her fever is at 103 and I started the tetracycline."

Chase started to examine the patient. There were a few new curiosities. "Her abdomen is pretty stiff. Any bowel movements?"

"None recorded as of late."

"We should do a colonoscopy." Chase opened the chart and examined all the latest data. "Damn, iGa levels normal. I suppose that was to be expected."

"Yep, it isn't CVID."

Chase continued his routine examination by getting out his light pen, opening the patient's eyes and gazing inward. His face told the tale of surprise as he checked again to be absolutely sure. He stared at his intern with shock, who was by now alerted to the abnormal findings. "Randall, she's in a coma."

"She is? The doctor on call when he checked her said she was just unconscious."

"Not anymore." Chase turned off the light pen and thought about the next course of action as he placed it in his pocket. "We need to get her into an MRI now. We should have no problem getting in at this hour. I'll get something arranged."

Randall nodded as he took his place next to the woman who he had immersed himself in her care. He remembered his training as to how coma patients could hear voices sometimes. He started telling her about the thrill of working in a hospital.

--------------------------------

"You sent Randall to talk to House?" Foreman laughed, picturing Chase sending the young one out to slaughter. "Man is that cruel."

"He now has to call him Emperor." Chase said laughing in return. "Besides, isn't that exactly what House used to do to us?"

"What send his minions to do his dirty work? Sure, which is why I would've thought you wouldn't do it. What goes around comes around I guess. I remember the title thing. He stopped asking me to call him 'Boss' when I made it clear I could kick his ass."

"My favorite nickname was Cameron's. I loved how she had to call him 'Master'."

Foreman looked across the room noticing the MRI results on the light board. "This from your patient?"

"Yeah. The tetracycline is only mildly helping. It is keeping her fever down to 100. The MRI really didn't show us anything."

Foreman headed over to the board and studied the scan with intense fascination, all while ideas of what could be happening sparked in his head.

"So, you actually want in on this?" Chase said smiling. "I knew you couldn't stay away too long."

"This isn't a very bad case of encephalitis. It isn't the kind that should be causing comas. You might be dealing with another infection somewhere."

"Something other than toxoplasmosis?"

"The parasite wouldn't do this either."

"Her abdomen was a little stiff. I have a CT scan and a colonoscopy scheduled in an hour."

"That's a start. Kidney, liver, pancreatic function normal?"

"Yep." Chase then froze as a revelation hit him. "She was taking folic acid. I'm willing to bet it was for PMS. I'll scan the uterus while I'm at it."

Randall walked in feeling the buzz of energy in the room. "Wow, you two look like you are brainstorming."

"Sorry Randall, looks like you missed it." Chase's pager started to beep. "Damn, there's an issue with the CT scan schedule. I better take care of this." Chase left Randall and Foreman in the room alone.

Randall looked in fascination as Foreman's eyes stayed fixed on the MRI scans. "Is there something there we didn't see?"

"Not really, it just seems curious that she is having all these problems and the scan for the most part is pretty clean." Foreman turned to face Randall. "So, how is it going with Dr. Chase?"

"I'm learning a lot. He seems to be interested in showing me things. Sure, the lessons have been rough, but I'm sure it was the same for all of you."

Foreman chuckled. "You got that right. This is one of the toughest programs you could be part of, but damn will it look good on a resume when you are done."

"Why do you think Dr. Chase stayed with Dr. House while you and Dr. Cameron left?"

Foreman folded his arms and showed interest in the inquisitive nature of this young man. "Wow, you like to ask the tough questions. Curiosity in an intern is good. Chase has a mind for diagnosis that Cameron and I don't have and never will have. He was meant to do this, and he is great with pressure, which means he can handle anything House throws at him, which is plenty. He was the first person to survive a full fellowship with House."

"Speaking of Dr. Cameron," Randall stopped there, wondering if he should ask the question.

"Yes, is there something you want to know about her?"

"Does she and Dr. Chase have a history? The way they carry on it seems to go beyond professional boundaries."

"You are very observant. By 'history' do you mean did they do it, the answer is yes."

"That explains a lot of things."

Foreman chuckled. "Yeah, well be glad you weren't around to be in the middle of the carnage. I was glad it was only a couple isolated incidents."

"I'm hoping for the day when there will be other people on the team that I can interact with. I've heard legendary stories about your diagnosis sessions."

Foreman now laughed at this kid's optimism. "Yeah, well don't believe all the mystique. It was mainly House berating us into accepting his logic. We always challenged him, but he always won out."

"It makes you wonder given his track record why he even needs a team."

"Somebody has to talk with the patients and do all the boring stuff. You actually get to do the work that unravels the mysteries. That's a huge responsibility on this team, so feel honored that you have it."

Randall wholeheartedly agreed. "Oh, I certainly wouldn't trade this opportunity for everything."

Foreman patted him on the shoulder as he went to leave. "Good attitude. Keep it up, because you'll need it once House is back."

Randall took in a deep breath after Foreman cleared the room. He felt in over his head most of the time, but he also felt like the luckiest intern alive.

-----------------------------------------------

"Why Dr. Chase, you finally had that sex change operation that I always predicted would happen."

"Cut it out House, you're lucky I'm here at all." Cameron wasn't about to put up with his crap today.

"So Chase has resorted to sending his proxies? I must admit the intern would have been more fun to rattle."

"I have a heart. I couldn't put that kid through that again even if Chase had no problem doing it. I volunteered."

"So the nice Dr. Cameron decided to show up today. How sweet. You going to tuck me into bed when this is all done and make it all better?"

Cameron's biting glare indicated the obvious answer on that one. "What do you want House?"

"So now that the patient has encephalitis, what are you doing?"

"How did, of course, you are either guessing or you got inside info. Either way, what do you need me for? You shouldn't be thinking about the case. Chase has it under control."

"My guess is Chase started tetracycline or some similar antibiotic. Since that is now meeting with marginal success, where are you looking next? The kidneys, the liver?"

Cameron let out a deep sigh. She had just better answer his questions. "They are fine. The theory is that there is another infection somewhere that is causing all to go wrong. Chase is doing a CT scan of the abdomen next since there is abdominal swelling."

"Is he checking the spleen?"

"There is no evidence of lymphatic abnormalities and the area around the spleen seems normal."

"That doesn't mean that it isn't malfunctioning." House paused, then shook it off. "It doesn't matter, because I don't think that is causing the problem anyway. The absence of endocarditis wouldn't completely support this theory, but it is possible that she is currently predisposed to Septicaemia."

"Blood poisoning?" Cameron thought through the suggestion. "White cell count is normal and we haven't found any bacteria in her blood cultures."

"It isn't an ideal fit, but sepsis can be a cause. The blood cultures likely haven't found the right bacteria."

"So how do you suggest we diagnose or treat it?"

"Early Goal Directed Therapy. Just get rid of whatever it is. Central venous saturation would do the trick."

Cameron wasn't buying into such a reckless solution, as usual. "That is most effective in cases of severe septic shock. She isn't close to experiencing multiple organ failure. That is too radical at this point."

"It still works and it would flush out any blood infections that exist."

"If they exist. There is no evidence of blood infection and like you said there is no endocarditis. Such an intense procedure shouldn't be done without proper confirmation." House looked at her with complete resolve. "Why do I sound like a broken record? There is no way I'm going to convince you otherwise."

"Rerun the blood cultures if you must to test for a wider spectrum of aerobic and anaerobic organisms. Then when she crashes while you are doing that…now I'm the one sounding like a broken record. We know the drill by now. You try it, it either works or it doesn't."

Cameron stood up. "Luckily it's not your call. Chase isn't going to like this one bit but I'll still send your recommendation."

"Tell Chase he should be a man and deliver his objections personally. This will not bode well for him later if he keeps ignoring me."

"Yeah, I'm sure Chase is just quaking while you send your high and mighty orders from rehab. He's not caving into your pressure. You don't scare him and haven't given him any reason to believe in you these days. Still, I'll deliver the message." Cameron marched out of the room, leaving a quiet House to ponder at what point the dynamic so drastically shifted with his team. Maybe he trained them too well.

------------------------------------------------

"You've got to be kidding me!" No, Chase didn't take it well. "I shouldn't be surprised. Reckless theories are exactly what I should have been expecting. Good thing I have the ability to blow them off this time."

"What do you think about the sepsis theory?"

"Aside from the fact that all our tests cannot confirm it? EGDT is something used by the ICU in cases of severe septic shock. We aren't even close to that point. Although, it would certainly get rid of whatever infection she has if it is blood based, but I'm not convinced it is."

"She isn't experiencing organ failure yet, but she is having inflammation responses and is hypotensive. Septic shock could be what happens next."

Chase couldn't completely dismiss what was being suggested, especially since he didn't have any better ideas right now. "I suppose we can put her through some coagulation tests and expand the blood cultures for more types of bacteria. If those are abnormal I'll consider House's radical theory. I'm not putting her through EGDT though unless we need to."

Cameron nodded, but readied herself for bringing up one more piece of unfinished business. "Chase, he really wants to see you. Please, just humor him. He is going to make us all miserable unless you do so."

"What good will that do? He is just going to undermine my abilities as a doctor and decision maker on this case. I don't trust him right now. I have way too much to juggle here where I don't have time to humor the great Dr. House. I'll talk to him again when he decides to be a real doctor again."

Chase walked away, leaving Cameron a strong glimpse of the hard feelings Chase was harboring right now. She had no idea how badly House's latest mess caused a rift with Chase until now. She understood why he wouldn't seem him, but Chase's attitude was not going to be addressed by House lightly. The escalation could only get worse.

--------------------------------------

"Randall, we are going to run through a series of coagulation tests. Have you ever done those before?"

"Coagulation? You think she is having trouble with blood clotting?"

"No, I don't. We are just trying to prove that her blood flow isn't causing tissue death somewhere which would be causing an infection. We also need to expand the blood cultures for a wider range of organisms to rule out sepsis."

"That could take weeks."

Chase smiled. "Exactly. You will learn though that through deductive reasoning we try to narrow it down to the most likely sources. It will still be a tedious several hours or days. Good thing I have someone reliable to handle all that for me." Chase gave him a pat on the back.

"I suppose this was something you, Drs. Cameron and Foreman had to do a lot of."

"You don't know that half of it. I think half of my fellowship was spent in the lab."

"Can't I at least get some help?"

"I'll see if Dr. Cameron has some time, otherwise we only have you. Unless you know of another intern who likes looking at blood cultures."

Randall shook his head, accepting that he was on his own. "You really think her issues are in the blood?"

"No, but ruling out possibilities is just as important. We have to be sure. This is a task you are more than ready for. Just call me if you find anything."

Randall gave him a blank stare. He then realized again that this was his boss and he better show some cooperation. "Okay, got it."

-------------------------------------

Chase sat in the chair next to his patient as she peacefully lingered. This was the first quiet moment he had all day, maybe all week. The reminders of when he was just a simple ICU specialist were thick. There were many times when the shifts were this peaceful. He and the patients would share this quiet state of limbo, both knowing that at any minute the status could change, but at least they were able to experience the brief calm together before the moment of truth. Too often that moment of truth ended for the worse, but there were always the good times as well. He quietly hoped for good this time around.

"Any change?" A voice asked from the room entrance.

"No. I suppose in her case that is a good thing." Chase answered. "Any particular reason you are taking interest in my patient Dr. Wilson?"

"Oh, I think you know the reason. We are both smart enough to know what that is. You are only setting yourself up for complete punishment when he gets out."

"I know that. I'm willing to accept the consequences of my actions at that time. I don't have to now though, so I've decided to put it off."

Wilson smiled. "Not a very wise strategy, but you are a big boy. You should know how to pick your fights by now. Anyway, it's been a while. Care for a beer?"

Chase welcomed that suggestion with open arms, figuratively. "Mind if Foreman comes along? We were considering getting together later."

"Sure, it will seem like old times."

"How's that? You, Foreman and I have never gone out for anything, especially a beer."

"Okay, new times then. A beer is a beer, right?"

Chase laughed. "Yes, that's right. Okay, let's go find Foreman."

-------------------------------------

"Wilson is here to convince me to go visit House supposedly for my own good. I'm thinking it is for his own good so he doesn't have to listen to House gripe." Chase said and he, Foreman and Wilson had their beers in their hands.

"He's right man, House will hold a grudge. I know you've put up with his misery before, but this it could get really ugly this time." Foreman wasn't sure why he was giving warning because he knew it would be ignored.

"I'll adjust." Chase replied, quickly willing to brush off any suggestions.

Wilson wasn't paying attention as he was noticing the three beautiful blond women that walked in the bar. He was rendered a bit speechless. Foreman and Chase looked over to the objects of his gaze and laughed. "Three of them, three of us," Foreman observed. "It works out perfect."

"Sorry, but I'm spoken for," Chase said, "which is too bad, because they are gorgeous."

Wilson and Foreman expressed disturbing alarm on their faces over that statement. "What?" Chase asked, not sure what prompted such a harsh reaction.

"You mean you and Natalie are that serious?"

Chase was completely confused by their reactions. "Uh, I'm not allowed to be?"

"It's not that," Foreman said backpedaling a little. "We just never pegged you to be the one woman type. Even House has gone on record a few times that you were never capable of that."

"Yeah, well people can change."

Foreman and Wilson looked at him skeptically, not buying one word of his act.

Wilson decided to break the mood. "Well I'm certainly available, so if you'll excuse me." He walked over to the blondes and started pouring on the charm. Each of the women were instantly enamored and returned the interest by throwing themselves all over him. Wilson looked like he had struck gold.

Foreman got up. "There's no way he's having all the fun." He joined Wilson and was instantly welcomed into their little social grouping.

Chase smiled at how much fun his friends were having. He had a fleeting thought to join them then quickly nixed it. Yes, he was surprising himself these days.


	5. Responsibilities

**a/n: Sorry for the delay, but I have been trying to perfect this all week and couldn't quite get it to where I wanted it to be until I finally got inspiration on a car trip between Indianapolis and Columbus. Open boring landscape does that I guess! Anyway, I hope you like it. **

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The countless hours during the last day staring at negative lab test results was messing with his brain. Randall needed a break and chose to take a small amount of time to do what he actually went in to medical school for. He wanted to be with the patient. He elected to spend the first few hours of his shift today caring for the person that really needed him right now. The lab cultures would wait.

Ten minutes of sitting with his own thoughts was all he got before her eyes started fighting the urge to open, and judging by the struggle they were fighting valiantly. Still, the impulse was too great, and eventually the pupils appeared through narrow openings that were still adjusting to the light.

"Miss Edwards? It's okay to wake up." Randall assured her.

She parted her dry lips as she prepared to answer the young doctor's attempt at soothing. "Call me Martha, and I'm thirsty."

Randall reached over to the end table and moved the cup of water over to her lips. She took a few sips before she stopped the process with a slight cough. "Thanks. Am I dying?"

Randall smiled. "No, you aren't dying. You are still very sick, but we aren't ready to give up on you."

"How long was I out?"

"About a day. We gave you some antibiotics and they seem to be helping a little."

She moved her head ever so slightly to indicate that she understood, but mostly to get her wits about her.

"I need to get Dr. Chase." Randall told her with eager voice ready to tell his mentor the new development.

"No, please stay. I don't need another doctor poking at me right now." Her voice was weary but determined. "You said I'm not dying, so you can take time to talk to me."

Randall nodded and sat down next to her. "How are you feeling?"

"Like a gorilla slammed me against the wall like I was a samsonite. Other than that, I'm good."

Randall smiled at her comment. At least she was maintaining some wit.

Even with dark circles under her eyes and pale color she couldn't help but be troubled by the young man's face. "Have you been with me long? You look tired."

"I can't believe you are actually concerned about how I look. I'm fine compared to what you are going through." Randall uncomfortably paused, wondering if talking was a good idea. "Look, it might be best if I find Dr. Chase."

"Tell me what the weather is outside. I haven't seen it in days." Her comment was slightly laced with desperation. She just wanted normal conversation and not be handled.

Randall relaxed a bit as conversations about the weather always eased a strange moment. "Snowing. You aren't missing out on much."

She slightly laughed. "Yes I am. I love looking at the snow from inside a window. The blanket is so comforting. That's what I like about my job. I have a window view so I can watch as much snow as I can while I work. It's a major perk."

Randall frowned at the thought of someone loving the white stuff so much. "I've lived in this area my entire life and have always hated snow. I always thought I would move to Florida once I got out of med school, but this opportunity came along."

Miss Edwards slightly cringed. "I lived in Florida for about a year. It is one of the worst possible places you can live. Mosquitoes, bugs, alligators, air that chokes you because it is so humid, not to mention all the senior citizens with their illnesses. It was a death trap."

"I don't get it. Why are you so concerned about diseases? You have always been healthy."

"I want it to stay that way. Clean, untouched by filth." She started to squirm just a bit as she looked at the IV stuck in her arm. "Now I can just feel things crawling inside of me. You sure I'm not dying?"

Randall touched her arm and gave her that innocent look of intense honesty that only could come from a fresh faced intern. "I'm certain of it. I'm a doctor, I should know. We just need to give the medicine a little more time."

She bit her bottom lip, obviously trying to hold back a slight rush of emotion that waved through her in a flash. "I just have never been this way before." She cleared her quaking voice before going on. "Enough about sickness. Tell me more about the snow outside."

Randall decided it would be best to tell her about the mess he had to plow through as he came in that morning.

------------------------------------------

"You didn't page me when she woke up?" Chase thought he had trained his young intern better than that.

"She didn't want you to examine her and seemed very upset about anyone coming in to do the same. She just wanted to talk. Her vitals were okay enough where we could do that for a little while. We have really developed a rapport. Maybe I can build on this to learn more about her. She seems to trust me."

Chase opened his mouth to answer, then closed it. He had to admit it wasn't such a bad idea. "Learn anything so far?"

"She's a germaphobe and she told me all about how she played in the snow growing up."

"Hmm, doesn't sound very productive. Did she mention anything about relatives?"

"Not much. Her parents are alive but she had a falling out with them and doesn't see them. She was an only child and didn't mention anyone else. She doesn't seem to have a lot of friends, or really any."

Chase nodded. "Okay, after I check her out go back and keep talking. I'm going to see if there is anything else I can get from the scans. Let me know…"

"I know, if anything changes. I won't hold back next time." Randall lowered his head and headed off to check on a few more test results.

Chase couldn't help but think how much Cameron was right. He was a good little pup. He almost felt a little sad about how the bitterness would eventually set in. Ah well, that happens to the best of them.

-------------------------------------

Chase had the CT scan results in his hand all ready for a thorough analysis. His first glimpse revealed a rather interesting finding and he wanted to study them harder. The fact that his patient was awake proved that the tetracycline was doing something, but the abdominal stiffness and bowel issues weren't improving, and the fever wasn't breaking.

The conference room was empty and quiet which made for an inviting surrounding to Chase. Quiet was so desperately welcome anymore. He put the scans up on the light board and turned it on eager to perform a careful study. It wasn't but a few seconds into his examination when he felt a presence behind him. That presence could have only come from House's office.

"Wow, can I play?"

Chase dropped his head in complete aggravation. "You're supposed to be in rehab House. I thought you had a judge to impress."

"Field trip. Apparently I get time off for good behavior, but my shadow over there still gets to follow me everywhere." House pointed to the attendant affectionately known as Voldemort.

"You risked everything just so you could harass me about my case? It's under control. Go back."

"Oh, so she's all better, diagnosed and ready to go home? Great, you don't need me then." House started walking back and forth in the room, if anything for dramatic pause for his next move. "So the EGDT did the trick? Oh that's right, it didn't, because you think it is a crazy idea. Since you won't listen to me that way, at least move over and give me some room so I show you what you are missing with those scans."

"You aren't supposed to be here." Chase said firmly as he switched off the light board and turned around blocking House's view. "Last I looked you were on leave of absence. You shouldn't be treating patients."

"You are already in enough trouble where retaliation is guaranteed once the patient is cured. Stand aside so we can do our jobs. This woman is dying."

"I don't think she's dying yet. You just need your puzzle so you don't have to deal with your miserable situation. This isn't your case."

"I run this department. It's my responsibility."

"You don't run it while you are in rehab. You aren't allowed to do anything. Go be a grown up and deal with your own problems instead of sticking your nose in mine."

House slightly chuckled as he was rather amused by the defiance of his junior attending. "So that's what this is about. You're mad at me because you think I'm addict."

"I don't think you're an addict."

"Liar. We are all painfully aware of your lack of tolerance with any type of addictive behavior. I've somehow managed to disappoint an unrealistic standard that you set for me."

Chase looked away with arms folded and chose to ignore such accusations. Anything he said to House didn't matter, so why bother with any words?

"Don't retreat on me now. You've got nothing to lose at this point. Since I'm not officially here, I can't fire you."

"I'm not upset with you."

"Ha! There is another half truth. I never said upset. I believe the word was disappointed. Dimwits usually carry a pocket thesaurus when they can't tell the difference."

Chase unfolded his arms and made abrupt eye contact revealing his deep and long simmering fury within. House even was a bit alarmed over the quick wrath that he pushed him into and didn't know what was coming. "What do you expect!? You are finally letting your diversions get in the way of you being the gifted doctor you are supposed to be. You punched me for speaking rationally and delivering the truth about a diagnosis you blew. How does that earn my undying loyalty!? You almost maimed a young girl. There is no way I'm letting your issues get in the way of a patient's welfare again." Chase grabbed the films off the board. "When your distractions are gone, I'll let you look." He stormed out of the office with results in hand.

House wasn't sure whether to be angry or proud of Chase's backbone, but he couldn't blame him for his reactions. He would have done the same thing. The difference in this case was he never let anyone tell him no and wasn't going to stop here. Time to go back and formulate a plan. "I better get back," he told Voldemort. "Group therapy just feels so empty without me."

---------------

Chase found Foreman had already arrived at Cameron's office. "Want to see something fun?" He said as he displayed the results eagerly.

"Why are we doing this here?" Cameron knew something was wrong.

"House is staking out the diagnostics area." Chase confessed.

"Chase, just talk to him." Cameron advisement was overloaded deep concern.

"I already did. He didn't like what I had to say."

Foreman and Cameron eyes met sharing the same glance of worry over how badly this was all going to play out. Foreman broke the gaze and stepped over to the light board. "Let's see what's so interesting."

His eyes opened wide by what he saw. Cameron saw his reaction and looked over his shoulder. "Endometriosis?"

Chase knew he would grab their interest. "Yep. I think she has had this problem a while since she was taking folic acid. This could be where it all began."

"Endometrial cells may be carried to other locations in the body by the blood or lymph fluid circulation." Foreman agreed the finding had some merit.

"Too bad all blood and lymphatic system tests are normal. Still, it has to be doing something. I'm going to get Randall to run some additional tests."

Something didn't make sense to Cameron. "I'm surprised she has had this condition without the presence of abdominal pain. Isn't that the most obvious symptom?"

Chase had an easy answer for that. "She could be lying about the pain, especially if she has had it a while and hasn't said anything. For whatever reason, she doesn't want people to know about it." As Chase was making his point, his pager went off. "Sorry, I've got to go," he said and darted out of the office. Cameron and Foreman wondered if they should follow, but they shrugged at each other and went back to looking at the scans.

Chase arrived just in time to see the trauma team finishing up. Randall was standing in the back, a little rattled by what had happened. He didn't waste any time reporting the latest to his boss. "She had a seizure and has tachycardia. Her urine output is dark and concentrated. I'm waiting for them to finish so I can get a blood sample. We need to test her electrolyte levels."

Chase grabbed the chart and signed the authorization for the lab work. "Have the lab also check her serum levels, potassium and for both acidosis and alkalosis. I'll start her on a saline solution for now because it is likely hyponatremia."

"But that would…" Randall stopped his thought there. He didn't need to tell Chase what such a diagnosis meant. He nodded and went to carry on his tasks.

-----------------------------

"Hyponatremia." Randall delivered the results as Chase, Cameron, and Foreman were going over the chart and previous test results in the conference room. "She has high pH and creatinine levels are at 1.5. She's just been moved to the ICU."

The three former fellows looked at each other knowing what they were now up against. Chase got up, grabbed a marker and wrote at the bottom of the growing list of symptoms on the white board, _Renal Failure. _

"Randall, come with me." Chase directed as he put the marker down went toward the entrance. "You get to learn a new procedure."

"What are we doing?" He asked rather excitedly.

"EGDT."

-----------------------

Randall felt the hand shaking his shoulder that woke him from his brief rest. In his disorientation he slowly realized that he was still next to the patient in the ICU, monitoring her for any changes from the new therapy.

"Randall, go home. I've got this covered for a while."

Randall looked up at his mentor, all dressed in scrubs and ready to settle in for the evening. "Are you sure Dr. Chase? I don't mind staying."

"You have been putting in some long nights lately, and well, I'll have some company this evening." Chase pointed out into the nurses station, where Natalie was getting ready to start her shift.

Randall got up and without hesitation headed for the door. "You don't need to tell me twice. My bed misses me." He turned back before leaving. "Thanks Dr. Chase, and have a good evening."

"Trust me, I will." Chase told him. Randall left hurriedly without further acknowledgement.

Chase settled into the spot previously occupied by Randall. He was pleased to see that the boy knew when to run. "Opportunities should be taken advantage of," said the voice entering the room.

"Just what I was thinking as I saw Randall leave." Chase replied to the beautiful woman standing in front of him. "I don't get the chances to hang out in the ICU like I used to. Seems weird for an intensive care specialist, huh?"

Natalie smiled and worked her way over into Chase's lap. "Nothing is weird when you work for House." They sat comfortably for a few minutes, just enjoying the sound of each other's breath and the monitors. "This is nice."

"Really?" Chase wasn't sure why she was enjoying the dull moment so much.

"What, aren't we just allowed to relax in each other's arms? Life isn't supposed to be excitement all the time."

Chase pulled her in even closer and rested his head on her left shoulder. His silence and content posture was enough agreement to her comment.

Natalie glanced carefully to make sure the patient was sound asleep. "Robert, maybe we should be trying to spend more time together outside of work."

Chase wasn't sure what she was getting at. "We get together a few nights a week already. What are you asking?"

"You know, we right now aren't fully aware of each other's schedule. Maybe we should be spending whatever time we can. I should start spending more nights at your place."

"Just nights?"

"You know what I mean." She slightly slapped his arm with a smile. "Evenings, weekends, afternoons, holidays, whenever you are available."

"What brought this on? Not that I think it is a bad idea, I think it is a great idea. Why are you asking this now?"

Natalie was rather hesitant to reveal what brought on her train of thought. "I just want to be with you more."

Chase believed that was a true statement, but wasn't still convinced that she revealed the true reason. "I've been trained to tell when people aren't being completely forthright. You aren't lying, but you are holding back."

"Stupid House," Natalie said obviously being caught. "Okay, I confess, I heard Dr. Wilson's assistant talking about how you wouldn't hit on any women at the bar the other day because you said you were taken. The nurses were all heartbroken and offended over that one."

Chase smiled serenely and gave her a big squeeze. "Yeah, I should have figured that would get around. Does that bother you?"

"No, even finding out through the hospital gossip doesn't bother me. It's kind of cool being on the end of a supposed big uproar. You can be honest with me though at any time. I don't scare easy."

"I know you don't. Just excuse me. I've always been great at dating and lousy with relationships. I promise to try harder."

Natalie turned herself around so that her face now faced his. "Relationship huh?" A crooked smile burst onto her face. "I guess it has evolved into that. We're now required to give each other copies of our keys and making face to face declarations of affection."

"Man, I need to check the rule book. I had no idea that was so automatic in these things."

"Yep," she replied playfully. "Maybe the Aussie rule book is different. So, you going to kiss me to secure the deal?"

"I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty certain the ignorance to the rules has nothing to do with nationality. It's a man thing." The voice said from across the room.

"Are we bothering you Martha?" Chase asked feeling like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Isn't there a coma patient you two could talk in front of? It might inspire him to wake up and slap you two." She quipped in reply to his question.

"Sorry, if we woke you. We'll take this outside." Natalie said as she and Chase blushed a little while sharing an amused laugh.

"No, stay. I like to see romance outside of the trashy novel. It's nice. I'll go back to sleep so you can kiss him."

Chase and Natalie pulled each other in tightly as their moist lips met for a deep kiss.

"Damn. I'm going to have huge trouble getting that out of my head. I'll never sleep. You two are too pretty."

Natalie got up, ready to do her rounds. "Get some rest Miss Edwards. I'll be back later." Her longing glare at Chase told him that she would be seeing him later as well.

**a/n: Good news is a lot of chapter 6 is now written as well so the wait for the next update won't be as long. **


	6. Discovering Humanity

**a/n: I dedicate the rest of this fic to Merlin71, SpreadTheWord, and Nikelodean. You guys have been so wonderful with your support and comments that I likely would have abandoned this fic by now. I'm having a blast writing this and it's so wonderful to see that at least the three of you are digging it too. **

**The response to this fic has been very poor, so for others reading I'll communicate my intentions here. I set out to carry on in the tradition of Adverse Conditions, which is the second fic in this series. I wanted to show Chase as a mentor and juggling everything in this AU I long created with the notion that the Tritter mess was still happening. I'm following a similiar format and trying to do a well developed medical mystery with personal dynamics thrown in. Eventually when this fic is done I'll sit down and read them both side by side and see if I accomplished this goal, but I'm pleased with the results thus far. I know of at least 3 people that agree with me, so I must be headed in the right direction. **

**Okay, anyway, enough of my comments. I bring you, Chapter 6, which is a long one.**

**-----------------------------**

"You comfortable?" Randall personally felt responsible for her well being now. Sure, doctors were supposed to care about their patients, but he was forming a bond with her that he hadn't experienced yet with another patient. He liked experiencing such a connection. It added a certain element of humanity to his job.

"Yes, I'm no worse than normal." Miss Edwards frowned with unease at the huge quantities of fluids being pumped through her IV and the wires taped to her chest from the extra monitors. "So this procedure could go on for three days?"

"Up to three days. We are hoping it will be less though since you aren't in severe septic shock."

"Is this going to stop the abdominal pain?"

"No. Endometriosis will have to be treated in other ways." He noticed the disappointment in her eyes with that answer. Obviously that pain had been bothering her for a while. "I'm curious, did you know that you had that before now?"

"Sort of. I've had on and off pain for a few years. I suspected it when I read about it online and found the natural remedies. They helped, but the pain is still bad at times."

Randall had a hard time trying to figure out why someone would get a painful condition and not seek medical help. "Why didn't you have your doctor give you something? His charts don't note any such problem at all."

Miss Edwards looked away, not really wanting to answer the question, but resigned herself to the fact she had to. "He'd have to do a pelvic exam. I'll never allow that to happen."

"You've never had one done?"

"No."

Randall briefly pondered if this was a typical hang up for a woman that has never had sex before, or if there was something else that wasn't being revealed. Since Dr. Chase was always telling him to suspect the latter, he would have to in this case.

"So what's your story Dr. Randall? Who are you and where do you come from?" She noticed the pensive thought of her doctor was eager to change to subject. She always was in the habit of trying to find out other people's stories. It took the focus away from herself.

Randall leaned back in the chair, not really sure what there was to tell about his uneventful life. "Me? There isn't much to say. I'm just average kid with a pretty average upbringing. My parents are still married, I have a brother and a sister and I was always a good student."

"You don't have any scandals or family secrets or traumas?"

"Nope. My upbringing was very normal."

"Define normal. I don't think there is any such thing. So why did you choose medicine?"

"I liked reading medical articles on the Internet. It just fascinated me."

"Geeks like you scare me," she said with a laugh. "The Internet is too strange a place. It puts weird ideas in people's heads. You really got inspiration to be a doctor from there? No friend of a friend or relative or near death experience?"

Randall actually liked her straightforward approach with her observations. It reminded him of an elusive doctor he worked for. "I didn't want a job that was boring. My dad is a controller. Dull, dull."

"I've fought hard to keep my adult life boring, because my upbringing was anything but. I'm rather content with a structured and simple life."

"Your life sounds more lonely than boring."

She was little surprised by his sharp observation, but not intimidated. "What makes you conclude that?"

"Uh," Randall stopped to think that he should use restraint, but figured he shouldn't stop now. "You don't have anyone coming to visit. No family, no friends. You said you don't keep in touch with your parents. There is nothing wrong with that, it's just something I noticed."

"I like being all alone. People tend to ruin your life. Contact at work is enough for me." She let out a huge yawn, either out of tiredness or because she had enough of where the conversation was going, or both. "As much as I like talking, I think the medicine is wearing me down. Is it okay if I get some rest?"

Randall agreed she needed a break. Too much talking had to be causing fatigue after such an intense treatment. "Rest is most important. We'll talk later."

He ran through their conversation in his mind as he worked his way back to diagnostics. Something was revealed there, he could feel it. He just didn't know what. There were other doctors that probably would.

-----------------

Chase and Cameron listened intently to Randall's recollection of his conversation. Their sullen faces indicated that they were hearing a different version of the story. "Am I missing something?" Randall asked, confused by the rather harsh reactions to what seemed to be a simple conversation.

Chase looked at Cameron and nodded indicating he would handle this. "Randall, she is showing typical signs of someone that has been sexually abused at some form in her upbringing." Randall didn't see that one coming. "Really? How does that affect what's happening to her? Does it?"

"We don't know. Personal information is very important but sometimes proves not to be relevant. So far that explains why she lied about the abdominal pain and why she has OCD tendencies. She is fighting for control of her life. If she was physically harmed, then yes, it becomes important."

"So how do we find out?"

Chase took in a deep breath and let it out. Explaining this to newbies was always tough. "There's no good answer here. She's been clinging onto this and avoiding it for years. She isn't going to trust just anyone. She trusts you. You don't have to get her to tell you details about what happened, but it would help if you could find out if there was physical abuse."

"Shouldn't a shrink be talking to her?" Dealing with the psychology of patients was nothing that they taught in school. Sure, they taught how to tell someone they were dying, but not how to get them to talk about a painful moment.

"If we show up with a shrink she will close right up and think we are cornering her. She won't trust us anymore. We need to try to get through ourselves."

"You mean me." Randall knew that this burden was only on him.

"Yeah."

Cameron could feel the trouble weighing down the young man. "I can help if you want. Maybe she'll open up to me if I talk to her."

"Thanks, but Dr. Chase is right. She has trust issues. I should be the one to do it. Any advice on how to approach her?"

Cameron felt there was only answer. "Don't push her, and whatever you do don't directly ask the question. You need to lead her in that direction so she'll volunteer the information. Always let her know you have her welfare in mind."

"Shouldn't we also try to fix the emotional damage? Is that part of our responsibility?"

"Ours, no." Chase answered. "The best you can do in that case is to try and convince her to get proper help. We aren't the ones that can give her that help."

Randall dropped his head in frustration. How was he supposed to know if he was causing emotional harm? How was he supposed to know if he was pushing too hard?

"Randall, a piece of advice," Chase said noticing the deep internal struggle, "Learning how to trust instincts is something I still go through every day. It's part of being a doctor. You'll know how to act when you face the situation. Just don't worry about it."

Randall nodded knowing his adviser meant well, but he wasn't giving him much to go with. He accepted though that these tough situations were part of the territory. "Okay, I'll do what I can." He left with shoulders drooping, looking defeated before even starting the challenge.

"Should I go help him? He's too inexperienced." Cameron asked Chase.

"She only trusts him. He's got to do this on his own."

Cameron sadly agreed. She remembered how going it alone was the only way she learned. Still, she couldn't help but worry.

-------------------------

"Cameron told me what you did to your intern. She thinks you are throwing him under the bus."

"Right, not unlike how House threw her under the bus when she first started."

"Exactly." Foreman actually agreed with Chase on this one, but decided to give him a hard time anyway. "Why didn't you volunteer to talk with the woman?"

"She doesn't trust me."

"Never stopped you before. All you have to do is flash those baby blues and flick back the hair and women will tell you anything."

Chase didn't have a chance to answer, as they were interrupted by the commotion coming a few tables down from their spot in the cafeteria. A pair of colorfully dressed men walked in and stood at the head of Dr. Cuddy's table. Her head dropped as she knew what was coming next. The two men broke into a loud yet well harmonized version of 'You Are My Sunshine.' She sat with her irritated eyes looking downward into her hands while they offered pleasing entertainment to the crowd in general.

When they were finished the room erupted in applause. Cuddy stood up, gave them a quick sarcastic smile, thanked them for the song and brushed right by them over to Chase and Foreman. "Dr. Chase, my office, now," she commanded with stern voice. Chase shrugged wondering what he did to provoke her. Foreman laughed as Chase scurried behind a fast walking Cuddy whose clomping of her heels matched the ferocity of her mood.

When they got to her office, Chase's eyes popped out by the sight of the room engulfed in floral bouquets, stuffed animals, candy, gift baskets, and other miscellaneous gifts. "Your birthday?" Chase asked, rather confused.

"Nope, not even close. No, the past two days has apparently been 'harass your boss' day and only one doctor is celebrating. I can't take this anymore. I'm on my way up to see House now and I'm giving him what he wants. I'm going to ask for your cooperation. Except I'm not asking, I'm telling."

Chase's face drooped, but he understood. "I'll cooperate."

"Great, glad to hear it. By the way, that stuffed kangaroo over there is yours. Take it on your way out. House wants that on permanent display in diagnostics. He said it gives you something to remember him by."

Cuddy tore out of the office and headed upstairs. Chase picked up the kangaroo and looked at it. He couldn't help but laugh as he stared at the cute fuzzy brown creature in his hand. He now had a forever symbol to remind him who was boss. House yet again found a way to get what he wants. He might as well accept defeat gracefully.

----------------------------

"Hey, I got good news," Randall had been dying to deliver some type of hope to his weary patient. "The EGDT seems to be working. Your electrolyte levels are returning to normal and all blood tests are normal. We should be able to take you off the therapy this evening if all goes well."

"If that's the case, why do I still feel like crap?"

"How so?"

"My joints still ache and I still feel sick to my stomach. I just still feel blah in general."

"You're still getting everything flushed from your system. We'll give that a bit more time. I'll mention it to Dr. Chase though."

As Randall started checking her vitals for the hourly chart update, Miss Edwards let her curiosity get the better of her again. "What's his story, anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"Dr. Chase. How did he end up here? You have to admit he's a long way from home."

"I don't know the story actually. I just know that he like his boss is brilliant with difficult cases. He's the first person ever to survive under Dr. House."

"There's another doctor?"

"The Department Director. He's legendary actually. He's world renowned for his skills in diagnostics."

"How come I haven't met him?"

"He's on leave right now, although he doesn't interact with patients anyway. He doesn't really talk with interns either."

"You don't get to work with him?"

"No, hardly ever. I don't mind though, because I'm still learning a lot and he scares me. Dr. Chase really wants to teach me. From what I understand, I've got it better than he did."

Miss Edwards slightly scoffed. "He wants you to believe that. I'm willing to bet if anything you both are pretty even. Tell me more about the doctor that doesn't like to see patients. Isn't that like an auto mechanic who won't touch cars? How does that work?"

"Trust me, you don't want a visit from Dr. House. He is just about the meanest, nastiest, and most miserable human being you would meet. You want to be dealing with his staff only."

"Yet he still gets to be a doctor?"

"His mind for uncovering mysteries and possibilities in medicine is second to none. He is very gifted. Unfortunately, he was also gifted with a dislike for people."

"So how does Dr. Chase actually work with him? There has to be some type of mental illness there."

Randall couldn't avoid letting a slight laugh slip. "Yes, that's probably it. It would have to be. Maybe a brilliant diagnostic mind can only be coupled with some sort of dysfunction. I've been told that Dr. Chase is so far the only one to even come close to House's pattern of thinking. I so far can't argue with that."

"A dysfunctional mind. I suppose you have to use what you're given to your advantage."

_Lead her into talking about it. _He just saw an opportunity. "There is something else. Dr. House has a philosophy that he tries to drill into all the doctors who work with him. Our number one department rule is 'everybody lies'. It is his mantra."

"Everybody lies? Doesn't sound like he earns a lot of trust."

"Nobody can read other people better. It is like he can tell everything about you, who you are, what your story is just by looking at you. It's really intimidating actually. He always wants to know the real story. He only trusts what he sees."

"Funny, that is our belief at work too. Customer service forces you to think that way. I can see where it would be the same for medicine. It involves people."

"Dr. Chase always challenges me to find the hidden motivation. Like why a patient would lie about abdominal pain." The sly look in his eyes was hard to suppress.

She felt the setup and squirmed a bit in discomfort. She wasn't sure if it was the statement or if something was starting to not feel right. "I know where you are going. Stop."

Randall wasn't about to stop now. He was onto something. "You know, in that situation, if I were Dr. House, I would make a conclusion that the patient was abused in some way, probably sexually, and be happy with the fact that I was right in my conclusion and leave it at that. If I were Dr. Chase, I'd feel sympathy for the situation, but I would likely leave it alone since the problems are buried deep and would cause too much pain."

She let out a slight cough. "Since you're Dr. Randall, what would you do?"

"Try to get the patient to open up because I'm still too naïve to think that nobody should live with this much pain. I would never push someone into something they aren't ready to do."

She allowed a small smile to show. She again had to admire the guts on this kid. "Is possible abuse listed anywhere in that file?"

"Nope, and it never will be unless you want it there."

She tried to sit up a little more, but stopped when after feeling a bit of discomfort. She resorted to looking down at her hands while playing with her fingers, putting on her stone face and walling off her emotions to make this conversation easier. Something told her to let him keep going. "So what was the dead giveaway?"

"You don't want a pelvic exam and lied about the pain in your uterus, plus you never have, you know. You probably don't want anyone bothering that part of your body again. Has it been worth shutting yourself off though?"

"Probably not, but I'm still not over it yet."

"I'm no expert and in no way can relate, but I don't think you are ever suppose to be over it. It's how you cope. You can't let it ruin your life."

"You'll do great on a psych rotation." She coughed some more, bit her lip, and toned down her attitude. "No, I think I know what you are getting at. My mental and emotional status affects my total quality of life, and you are thinking I'm diminishing that. I just like playing it safe."

"Have you ever told anyone about it?"

"Nope. You're the first to even remotely figure it out. I feel terrified and embarrassed, but also strangely relieved."

Randall was fascinated how she was recounting such a trauma with almost no emotion, like she was dictating something from a TV program. "I always feel better after sharing a long held secret, but I can't imagine that this is the same thing."

"It is though. I've always wanted to tell someone, but I never knew how or who." Her breathing started getting a little heavier, but she didn't let that prevent her from going on. "I was 16. I tried to tell my parents once, but they wouldn't listen because it was my mom's baby brother."

"Did he cause physical pain?"

She started shaking a little and struggled a bit more for breath, but she still continued talking with empty candor. "Yes. It hurt a lot and he was rough. It only happened a few times."

Randall stopped her there and got up to assist her. "Deep breaths. You'll drive yourself into…"

It was too late. The monitor alarm tripped due to a rapidly decreasing pulse/ox as she started wheezing and gasping for breath. He went to page Chase, but found it wasn't necessary as he saw him rush in.

"She's going into respiratory arrest." Randall knew he was probably stating the obvious, but he felt required to tell him something. Chase only gave him a look of half-hearted thanks for mentioning what he already figured out instead of verbally admonishing him.

"The tachycardia is back too," Chase observed as he and the response team instantly went to work to get her breathing under control. As he listened to her chest, he was able to quickly figure out the problem. "Lower airway obstruction. Her diaphragm is paralyzed. I need an epi, stat."

Randall briefly wondered if his talk with the patient brought this on, but it could just be a coincidence. He witnessed Chase administer the epi and watched the pulse/ox while a nurse hooked her into the respirator. Slowly after a few tense minutes which involved loud grating alarms, frantically moving staff, and a general sense of panic, her breathing returned to acceptable levels.

Chase let out a deep breath of relief and approached Randall. "We got lucky. She was very close to cardiac arrest. Did anything unusual happen before she went into respiratory distress?"

"No, we were just talking."

"Talking huh? Did your talk upset her in anyway?"

"Nope. She seemed fine." Randall wasn't completely lying, she did seem fine until a few seconds before the attack. He didn't get her approval to mention what she told him yet, and he wasn't going to.

"Run another set of blood tests to be sure, but I'm thinking the blood is clean and we are dealing with a localized abscess or mass elsewhere. The EGDT pushed whatever infection was in bloodstream out and now it's going somewhere else and attacking other parts. We've got to find that mass. We'll get an MRI of the abdomen ASAP."

Randall nodded and headed off. Chase could only ponder for a few seconds the possibilities, as his name was frantically called. "Dr. Chase, look at this."

Chase came over to see the bloated abdomen. He felt around and in parts it was almost solid. "Get me an NG tube now. We've got a bowel obstruction."

**a/n: The next chapter, House gets involved.**


	7. Filtering Through The Noise

**a/n: I want to thank everyone who sent in comments last time letting me know that you are reading this fic and enjoying it. I have to admit, with most fics I'm a casual commentor. I do send feedback here and there, but I try to deliver more than the standard "update soon". I certainly don't expect a ton of feedback, just a few comments here and there letting me know that what I'm doing is working. I got that last chapter, so thank you, and I hope to continue to deliver something interesting. **

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Chase and Randall had their eyes attentively fixed on the illuminated MRI scans, frustrated by what so little was being revealed. "The bowel, the intestines, no sign of an abscess or growth anywhere. Even the peritoneum looks clean." Chase turned away and ran his hand through his hair, running desperately through his mind ideas as to where the problem existed.

Chase's train of thought was interrupted by the sight of Cameron and Foreman entering the conference room. "You've come to help?"

"Actually," Cameron confessed, "Cuddy paged us and told us both to be here."

"Cuddy? I wonder what..."

There wasn't much time for speculation as Cuddy arrived with a familiar frame towering behind her. "Oh boy, a class reunion! I'm geeked." The others only rolled their eyes at House's joke, knowing that he was there because of his usual tricks. Chase didn't say a word and retreated to a remote corner of the room. He assumed his services weren't required anymore.

Cuddy noticed the case file on the table and scans on the board. She cleared a path for the person behind her, who limped straight passed rather pleased that she had gotten out of the way. "We are having a simple diagnostic session. All ideas are welcome and will not be shunned. Dr. House is here only as an advisor."

"Excuse me Dr. Cuddy, but I don't belong here. I might have given Chase a little advice, but I'm not part of this case." Foreman really didn't want to be dragged into this, although he had to admit the chance to go head to head with House again with intriguing.

"You're involved, you're included. Same with Randall. Unlike other tyrannical bosses," she said while sending a dirty look to House, "I believe being part of these sessions is the best way for interns to learn."

House stared pensively at the board, tuning out all chatter in the room. "Not much here. The Endometriosis is interesting and a likely catalyst of the renal failure, but it wouldn't cause all the other symptoms she is having. What would set off a chain reaction of events in an otherwise perfectly healthy woman?"

"Thanks for summing up all our work in the last week. Yours is a truly deductive mind." Cameron felt compelled to take her opportunity to put House in his place.

"Dr. Chase and I were looking for the abscess. He knows one is there somewhere." House fired at intimating glare at Randall for actually speaking. "I don't believe your name was called, Robinson?"

"Randall, sir."

"Uh, uh, I believe my title is –"

"Emperor."

"House no more teasing the intern!" Cuddy wasn't in the mood for games at all. "You have your scans, get on with it."

House frowned at his oppressive boss and went back to looking at the board. He scanned again from right to left, where his eyes got very wide. "Where's her appendix?"

Foreman walked over and glanced where he was looking. "Where appendixes normally are, at the end of the large intestine."

"I don't see it there."

Foreman held his finger toward the scan. "Right there, you see that small little 7 cm extension of the large intestine."

"That's not the appendix."

Everyone in the room now leaned forward both interested and completely confused at House's discovery. They wondered what crazy theory was spinning through his head this time.

"What, no one else sees it? Come take a look, all of you."

House stood backward as everyone in the room moved forward to see what they had missed. Everyone except Chase that is. He remained in his spot in the corner showing no interest whatsoever.

"It's an appendix House," Cameron said supporting Foreman.

"Appendixes have a diameter of 7 mm to 1 cm. Whatever mass is there is only about 4-5mm. The positioning is slightly off too."

"So it's abnormal. It's an appendix. They have been known to be of varying sizes. Besides, it that isn't an appendix, what is it then and where is her real appendix?" Foreman wasn't about to give in to a theory about a missing part of the body.

House scoffed at Foreman's usual inability to think outside the box. "I don't know what it is. As for her missing appendix, she could have a congenital absence. It's rare, but it's known to happen."

"That could also be suppurative appendicitis. That condition is known to not show up easily on scans. The symptoms aren't typical either, especially if masked by other problems." Cameron was trying to come up with theories of her own since she wasn't buying what she was being told.

"Assuming that this is complications from atypical appendicitis wouldn't the EGDT have resolved any infections caused by it?" Cuddy asked.

"Let's go with Chase's theory," House said pointing at Chase, who wasn't even looking at him or acknowledging his point. "If there is a hidden abscess, especially somewhere near the abdominal wall or in the intestines, then the EGDT only took care of the problem temporarily by getting the infection out of the blood."

"Okay," Foreman said shaking his head over where this conversation was going, "So either that isn't an appendix or there is a hidden abscess somewhere –"

"Or both," Randall jumped in. House gave him another mean look. "Sorry Emperor."

"How do we diagnose what the true problem is? These scans are less than revealing." Cameron needed proof.

"We have to cut her open. Surgery is the only way effective way to tell." House said with a mocking 'well-duh' expression.

Cameron definitely didn't like that answer. "What if the abscess or infection is somewhere other than the peritoneum? How much digging do you expect them to do?"

"What if, what if, did you ever work for me? They keep searching until they find the problem." House took a second to wonder if Cameron would ever learn. "It likely isn't beyond the abdominal cavity. It has to be there somewhere."

"All this madness is based on a theory that this is not an appendix. So where is the appendix if it is not a congenital absence, which is very unlikely?" Foreman was still holding a good degree of skepticism.

"There have been cases where the appendix is actually hidden by the abdominal wall and doesn't show on scans. What looks like a wall might actually be an infection." House turned to Cuddy. "Call the OR, she needs surgery now."

"Not so fast House." House was alarmed by Cuddy's resistance to his fast orders while the others were rather pleased. "This isn't your call. You are advising here, and not officially. Any final decisions can only be made by Dr. Chase."

Chase stirred from his isolation as all eyes fell on him. He had no answer for them.

"What's it going to be Chase? We need a quick decision here." House prodded, just because he could.

Chase reluctantly got up and took his place at the light board while others gave him room. He stared intently at the small little blip on the page that was causing all this confusion and controversy. After a minute of careful study, his eyes got very wide when he finally realized what he was looking at. "Coincidental carcinoid."

He turned around to face to all eyes in the room, including ones that came from a smiling House. That wasn't a possibility House even considered and he fully agreed. "That isn't an appendix. That is a small tumor that hasn't metastasized yet." Chase explained further.

Most of the room wasn't convinced. House went to open his mouth to explain where Chase was going with his point, but stopped himself. This wasn't his revelation. "There are some slow minds in the room. Spell it out for them." He ordered the younger doctor.

"It fits. These types of tumors are usually a complication of other conditions. That small mass is likely causing the breathlessness, fatigue, joint pain, and the endometriosis. Whatever is wrong with her appendix has likely been there for years slowly developing because of her previously strong immune system. Once that finally started to weaken from the toxoplasmosis, it triggered this. Randall, we've got to hurry. We need to convince our patient that she needs to be in surgery now."

Randall enthusiastically agreed and they both quickly scuttled out of the room. The remaining doctors all looked at each other rather impressed by what had transpired. House stood up, took one more look at the spot in question on the scan and smiled with satisfaction. "Okay, problem solved. I guess we can go back to our lives." He faced the others. "We must do this again. Dr. Cuddy, you lead the way since you're the babysitter."

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "Come on. I promised you'd be back in time for dinner."

"Oh boy, meatloaf night!"

Cameron and Foreman giggled at House's fake joy over his menu while watching him and Cuddy leave. Foreman rose from his chair and took another look at the scan, shaking his head in disbelief that House could make such a catch and Chase could see it too. "I don't know. It still looks like an appendix to me."

"I have a feeling they both are going to be right. It usually turns out that way, and given all the problems it logically fits." Cameron had a respect for history.

"So do any number of other possibilities."

"That is both the thrill and curse of modern diagnosis. A long time ago, the problem used to be that they never had enough information to make a proper diagnosis. Now, with today's available technology and information, there is too much information to filter through. It becomes guesswork, just like before. Not all of us can have the brain to filter through all that noise like House. That is likely why you and I went onto other things. Who needs that much noise?"

"You mean House and Chase can filter it. It's scary, but Chase has the same crazy way of thinking. House just has 20 years more experience."

"You actually think that Chase's mind is as brilliant as House's? That seems strange even coming from you. I know you guys are friends now, but there is no way he is that gifted."

"Did you know House 20 years ago?"

"No."

"Then we will never know for sure. We'll only know in 20 more years."

"Chase in 20 years. No thanks. I don't think I'll ever be ready to see that. Tell me Foreman, do you miss it?"

Foreman smiled. "Yes and no. I'm doing great work, but the adrenaline rush isn't there. I certainly don't miss House's antics. I still don't know how Chase puts up with it."

"I know the feeling. Being an attending under House would be far worse than a fellow, but still, I miss the team. What we just did, that was pretty cool."

Foreman got a look of inspiration on his face. "You know, I've been bouncing around a strange idea in my head for a while that might need to be exposed to another set of ears. Want to go to the cafeteria and discuss it?"

A small smile of intrigue fell on Cameron's face. "I'm game."

-----------------------------------------

Cuddy stood in the OR observation room hoping that the damage wasn't too extensive. Whatever they were hoping to find probably had been there a while so she had no idea what they were going to discover. She heard footsteps behind her and twisted her head around to see who was there. "Hello, Dr. Randall." She greeted him with a smile. "Come on in, I don't bite."

"Hi Dr. Cuddy." He moved over to join her behind the glass wall that hovered over the OR. "I haven't observed a surgery since medical school. I'm not bored watching yet, but someday I hope to be in there part of the action."

Cuddy did find it odd all of a sudden that he was in there with her. "Why didn't Chase take you in there with him?"

"He was pretty occupied with the prep. This has been a pretty intense case. I'm sure I'll get to be part of something a little more routine next time."

"This is a teaching hospital. That's no excuse, but given the circumstances I'll let it slide." Cuddy's attention briefly turned to the surgeon who clearly made a discovery upon opening the cavity along the incision.

"Can you see what they found?" Randall couldn't make out much of what he saw, but he was ready to blame part of that on his inexperience.

"Not clearly, but it doesn't look pretty." Cuddy turned toward Randall, seeing this was the right moment to satisfy a curiosity. "Do you think you are learning from Dr. Chase?"

"Sure, he shows me lots of things."

"That's not the question I asked. I'm sure you're getting exposed to a lot of new procedures and methodologies. The question was, are you learning anything?"

"You mean how to deal with patients."

Cuddy nodded.

He looked down below at the team of surgeons who where fighting with every skill they had the malady that had sickened their patient. Chase may be the attending, but she was his patient. His first real patient. "I've learned more from her about caring for a patient's needs than anyone I have met. I hope to have more opportunities to work more closely with patients like I have with Miss Edwards. She's extraordinary."

Cuddy smiled. "I was very pleased that House had you report to Chase. He has one vital skill that House sorely lacks and always has. His connection with the patients is better than any doctor I've ever seen. He knows how to make them feel comfortable and important. I was hoping you would learn that from him." She smiled as she thought back to when Chase started under House. "I was shocked when House first hired Chase. He was the last person I thought House would take in. He isn't the type to be impressed with an unmotivated son of a wealthy and well-known physician. He must have seen something though because it has strangely worked."

"Dr. Chase's father is a famous doctor?"

Cuddy was puzzled that this wasn't common knowledge. "Of course. You are on House's team. Personal backgrounds are only shared if House teases or beats it out of you. His father _was_ a famous doctor. He died almost two years ago. Dr. Rowan Chase."

"Rowan Chase was Dr. Chase's father?" Randall started laughing a little.

"What's so funny?"

"I have been considering Rheumatology as a specialty but Dr. Chase has tried to talk me out of it. I wonder why he doesn't care for it much. He seems to have intimate knowledge of the field."

"It's no secret that Chase didn't care for his father. He visited Chase here before he died and it wasn't pretty. The chill between them both was like the Antarctic. Chase might have been nicer if he had known his dad was dying."

Randall shook his head. "That's screwed up."

"Tell me about it."

"So Dr. Chase is rich?"

Cuddy laughed. "No, his dad cut him out of the will. Now that's screwed up."

Cuddy stopped again as two small pieces were put in a basin and handed off to Chase for analysis. "They found something."

Cuddy continued. "Anyway, he certainly has exceeded all my expectations. He is every bit as good a doctor as his father. Hopefully Chase has taught you how to flirt with nurses as well. That skill has also worked to his advantage."

"I don't have to do anything. The nurses like me. They always want to pinch my cheeks and tell me how adorable I am."

Cuddy laughed. "Yeah, they always have fun each year when the new interns start. It is like they are caregivers getting a new crop of children. Heck, I have to resist acting like that most of the time."

Chase looked up toward the glass and motioned to Cuddy to meet him outside the OR. "Come on Randall, let's see what's up." They quickly met up with Chase at the OR desk.

"This is the damndest thing I've ever seen. She had a carcinoid alright. They found her appendix fused to the peritoneal wall encased in a fresh abscess that was slowly leaking into the intestines. The abscess has been drained and the tumor and appendix removed."

"So she's going to be okay?" A hopeful Randall asked.

Chase lowered his head, ready to deliver the twist. "She's got a bacterial infection that's spread all throughout her abdomen. We'll fight it with antibiotics, but it will be touch and go with her for a while. We will need to keep her sedated for a few days while she fights this. She isn't out of the woods yet."

Randall and Cuddy both nodded, accepting that it could have been worse.

"If you'll excuse me, I've got to get the sample of this growth to Dr. Wilson. A bacterial infection could be the least of our worries."

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"I heard House got to make an appearance." Wilson stated as he was going over the file.

"I've got to hand it to him, he helped us discover where the problem was. It's a good thing we had that MRI scan. The CT wouldn't have revealed the problem."

"What do you think he's going to do to you when he gets back?"

Chase let out a slight laugh. "Oh, I don't know, maybe make my life miserable? Oh yeah, he's already doing that. I'm more worried about the trial. We'll know in a few days if the department gets shut down or not."

"Not going to happen." Wilson stated with complete confidence without ever looking up from the paperwork.

"You think House is going to beat this?"

"I have no idea. He'll either piss off the judge so badly that she'll throw the book at him or he'll find some sort of trick to get out of this. There's no middle ground with House. What I meant is that there is no way Cuddy will shut you down."

"So you've gone psychic now?"

Wilson now looked up and smirked. "I know she has a backup plan handy. She isn't about to give up on all you have learned."

"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."

Wilson nodded in agreement and went back to the file for another quick look. "I'll run some more tests, but so far this isn't looking too bad. If it was cancerous, it was likely limited to the growth."

"We need some good news for once on this case. Anyway, I've got to do a post op check on my patient. Let me know what you find out."

As Chase was halfway out the door Wilson felt the need to give one more piece of advice. "Chase, don't worry. You and House will get through this."

"That might be the problem." He said smiling before he closed the door.

Wilson couldn't avoid smiling as well. Sometimes being stuck alone with House wasn't the best situation. Chase would adjust.


	8. Loose Ends

**a/n: Final chapter. Enjoy!**

Chapter 8 - Loose Ends

"Well, if it isn't Florence Nightingale."

Randall's eyes jerked upward from his medical journal, startled by her words. "Hey, welcome back."

"How long have you been there?"

"About an hour," he guessed. "This is the best place to get in some reading. I've been coming here off and on for the last week to catch up."

Miss Edwards took a few seconds to shake the sleepiness before his comment dawned on her. "I had surgery a week ago?"

"Yes."

"I've been asleep all that time?"

"Yes. The first couple of days were bad, but since then you've been getting stronger each day and we took you off the sedatives three days ago. You've been showing slow signs of waking since then."

She nodded, actually feeling fully rested for the first time in a while. _A week long sleep would do the trick,_ she figured. "So I'm not going to die?"

"Not anytime soon, no."

She let a small weak laugh slide. "They are training you right. I like honesty in a doctor."

"You feeling any pain?"

"No, I'm actually pretty good. A little stiff from being in this bed for a while but the best since I've been here."

Randall put the journal down and moved his chair closer to the bed. "You've missed a huge week of bitter cold you know. I actually envied you being all warm and comfortable."

A smile crept on her face at the thought of even bitter cold. Outside sounded so refreshing right now. "So you have time to talk?"

"Sure. It's 10 PM and I was instructed by Dr. Chase to only call if you were dying. You seem just fine. I have all night."

"So you would rather spend your spare time with me? How does a young guy like you not have a girlfriend?"

"Please, three years of medical school and then a high profile internship? I don't get to sleep, let alone date."

She let out another laugh. "Fair enough. I do have time and I don't date either."

Randall hoped that since the conversation was going well now was the time to take care of some unfinished business. "You know, speaking of that, we never finished our conversation. Is there more you want to talk about?"

She shook her head. "I'm not sure there is much more to say. It happened."

"That's fine," he replied in agreement. "So you know, I didn't share what you told me with anyone else."

"I appreciate that. I'm glad I told you. It was a huge relief to get it out, but I'm just not sure if it is going to change anything."

"Do you want things to change? If you're happy with your structured and isolated life, that is okay."

"I don't know if I'm happy. I'm safe, and that means a lot to me. Still, you have taught me one valuable lesson."

Randall's eyes grew very wide. "I did? Tell me what I did so I can try using that skill again sometime."

Her eyes fell downward as she tried to find the proper way to give the most honest answer. "You taught me that I can trust another person again, especially a man." She moved her head back up and gave him a bittersweet smile. "That is a step in the right direction."

"You never know, but I have heard stories around here about patients who have found themselves taking risks in life after almost dying. It affects them more than they think."

"I can tell you're still young, because that comment screamed optimism." She took a brief pause to ponder her thoughts before continuing. "Who knows, maybe I'll change from this. Maybe I won't. I do feel a bit like living on the edge though. I think I'm going to go home and not clean my apartment. That will rock my world."

"Sounds dangerous," Randall said laughing.

"Yeah, a little OCD humor for you. No, I think I might take a vacation. Florida is nice this time of year."

"It is indeed. Tell me what you would do there."

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"So, are you back for real this time? I figured they couldn't wait to throw you out upstairs."

House was sitting in his office, reading over the case file for Martha Edwards. "This is an incredible case here," he replied completely ignoring Chase's off the cuff remark. "This condition is rare enough where it would make a fascinating journal article."

Chase raised an eyebrow. "You want to write a journal article? You?"

House chuckled at such a notion. "Me? No, that's what my minions are for."

"You have _a_ minion, and he doesn't write journal articles either."

"We are a world renowned diagnostics program, processing all sorts of strange and rare cases a year, and we don't write journal articles. Our knowledge should be shared."

A startled Chase started looking around to make sure there wasn't a hidden camera in the office to gauge his reaction. He certainly didn't like the idea of his shock and surprise being shown on national TV, which was the only plausible scenario for House's comment. "Did they mess with your brain in rehab? You have never been about sharing, especially knowledge. What's going on here? You trying to setup me up for some sort of joke?"

"We need to get some new people in here to write these articles."

"Oh, so you actually want to hire some fellows now? Gee, I vaguely recall discussing the need for more staff recently. I think an entire interviewing effort was done." Chase grabbed his chin to add an element of drama to his sarcastic remarks. House's unimpressed stare told him to get on with his point. "Sure, your plan will work considering you have to read and sign anything anyone writes. That has worked so well in the past. You won't be able to get any fellows to try it."

"Fellowship program has been cancelled."

Chase grabbed his forehead, knowing House was having great fun irritating him. "Fine, I'll play. How are we going to write articles and function in general without fellows and one intern?"

"Meeting at 2:00. You will get all your answers then." House left the office while Chase continued the search for that elusive hidden camera.

--------------------

"Good afternoon Miss Edwards. I'm ready to sign your discharge papers and get you out of here."

She looked up from her task of packing her bag. "It's about freaking time," she told Chase. "One more day of this inorganic hospital food was going to kill me."

"Did a nurse give you the home care instructions?"

"Yep, I've been briefed." She resumed her packing while Chase began going through and signing forms. She abruptly stopped as her thoughts compelled her to speak her mind.

"Dr. Chase, since you are his boss, I really want to put in a good word for your intern there. He's a class act."

"Your feedback is noted," he replied trying to act professionally. Being this was his first supervisory role he really didn't know how to take feedback from a patient about another doctor.

"No, I'm trying to say more than he did a good job. I work in a field were recognition is rarely given, and from what Randall has said the same is probably true here for the hard ass you work for. He did so much more than just care for my medical needs. He tended to the emotional ones as well. That goes above and beyond what a doctor of internal medicine should do. Make sure in his training he continues to build on that."

"I will," Chase said assuring her with his pleasant smile. "He has some great people skills."

"Oh, and he refused to take any credit for saving my life. He says I have you and the mysterious Dr. House to thank for that. Teach Randall to be that good as well. And thank you for saving my life."

Chase signed the last piece of paper and put the chart back. "You're welcome Martha. Take good care of yourself. Dr. Randall will take you downstairs."

"Take care of yourself Dr. Chase. You look like you need a vacation."

_Vacation, huh?_ Chase thought to himself as left the room and headed down the hall. That sounded like the best idea he had ever heard.

-----------------------

Chase approached the conference room with deep uncertainty as he saw Cuddy, Foreman, and Cameron joining House in the 2:00 meeting he was summoned to. "What's going on here?"

"I'll explain everything. Sit down Chase," Cuddy instructed. He glanced at Cameron and Foreman blankly, who were trying to hide smiles while he followed his instructions.

"Dr. Foreman approached me with an idea last week. After House got out of jail, we spent the rest of his time in rehab going through the proposal. We've decided to move forward."

"Okay, what sort of trouble do I have to look forward to this time?" Chase was convinced that any idea was just going to overload him with more work.

"House may have mentioned that the fellowship program has been cancelled."

"Yes, it came up."

"That is because we are bringing on two new attendings instead. The scope of this department is being expanded. Diagnostics needs to be doing way more than just diagnosing and healing difficult cases. There needs to be more work with research and journal publications. We need to share our work. Starting the first of next month, Dr. Foreman will report to House as the new Specialist of Diagnostic Research. He will be responsible for expanding that program."

"What about his current studies?" Chase curiously asked.

"They will continue but they are now part of diagnostics."

"I see," he said somewhat pleased but knowing he hadn't heard it all yet, "and Cameron is here because..."

"That's more of a reorg. She keeps her title and duties for internal medicine, but she now reports to House. She will also now be responsible for all the administrative needs of the department."

"So House and I keep taking on a heavy case load?"

"Not exactly." House explained. "You are now a full fledged Specialist of Diagnostic Medicine. All patients are going to you."

"So what is your job?" Chase asked not sure if he liked what he was hearing. "It sounds like my work is doubling."

"My role is figurehead. I bring the name and reputation." Everyone gazed at him less than impressed. "What, no like? Fine, I'm kidding. I'm responsible for it all. I serve as primary consultant on all cases, I'll approve all the research activities, and I oversee all activities of my staff, including Cameron's stuff. That means I actually have to read our damn journal articles before I approve them."

"And Randall gets to be..."

"His role doesn't change at all. As a matter of fact, he'll be getting friends. Three more interns to be exact. They will be involved with all activities of the department. Cameron's first duty is to screen applicants and structure an actual training program. You three get to decide who gets hired. I'm staying out of that one."

Cuddy could still see Chase's confused look and felt a little more clarification was due. "Chase, you will be primary attending for all incoming cases, but you will have an entire team to support you now. You can reassign cases to the other attendings and choose which roles the interns will play. We want this new structure to free up you and House to do what you both do best, and that is be hands on involved in the diagnostic process. You both should focus on the medicine and leave the rest up to your team."

"So all this entire restructure starts at the beginning of the month?" Chase asked.

"Yes, in about 10 days," replied Cuddy.

Chase got a huge grin on his face, borderline ecstatic. "Fantastic," he said walking over to the other side of the room and grabbing his coat and messenger bag.

"Where are you going?" Cuddy asked confused by the reaction.

He began to put on his coat. "My patient was just discharged, and my intern is in training next week. I'm going on vacation. You owe me about 300 hours, so I'm cashing a few in. See you on the first."

"Well the nerve," House said in mock offense as Chase walked out the door without hesitation.

"Can it House. You are capable of handling your own department for 10 days. I seem to recall you just came off your extended break." Cuddy turned to Cameron and Foreman. "Okay then, everyone's dismissed."

"Can we go on vacation?" Cameron asked with a joking smile.

"No," Cuddy said sternly. "Go back to your cushy jobs while they are still that way."

Cameron and Foreman laughed and headed back to their respective departments to start tying up loose ends.

---------------------------

"Wow, this is nice. Where did you find this place?"

"Foreman recommended it. He knows where to go in the Poconos."

Natalie took a long deep breath admiring the scenery in front of her. "The view is incredible."

"I'll say," although Chase's eyes were on Natalie instead of the landscape. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and pulled her back close toward to him. "I'm glad you could come along on such short notice."

"Like you would have come here by yourself." She twisted her head backward and gave him a huge 'happy vacation' kiss. "So what are you going to do on your vacation? What in the world could you do with 10 whole days?"

"Not a damn thing. For the next few days, we aren't leaving this room. When we go back home, I'm getting lots of beer and movies and not leaving my apartment. My pager is off and will stay off."

She giggled at his plans. "We'll never be able to get you back to work. You'll be permanently part of the couch by that time."

"Yeah, that's a risk I'm willing to take."

She spun around to face him wearing a flirtatious leer. "Willing to risk that round bed over there?"

He returned her suggestion with his own enthusiastic gaze. "For you my dear, I'll take any chance." He picked her up in one fell swoop and carried her toward the bedroom.

They stretched out on the bed and in no time broke into wild and fervent kisses. As his supple lips moved down her neck, she had to ask the question. "Robert, what possessed you to finally take a vacation? You have worked for House for over three years and never taken one."

"I didn't want to wait anymore."

"Wait for what?"

"To have a life."

An overjoyed, satisfied smile fell on her as she looked into those gorgeous eyes and tenderly stroked the back of his neck. "You want that life with me?"

"Why wouldn't I want to be with the woman I love?"

Tears welled up in her eyes accompanying her pleasant smile. She pulled him toward her and threw them a deep kiss expressing her love as well. "Then I'm not waiting anymore either," she told him once the long smooch had broken.

His emotionally wrought face fell into his right hand while he inhaled a deep calming breath. He then let out a brief chuckle.

"What is it?" She asked sporting an amused grin, sensing his reaction was due overwhelming happiness.

"We better not let our joy show at the hospital. Heads would implode."

"Law of averages. Somebody has to be happy there."

"It might as well be us." He abruptly stopped the conversation by engaging their lips, tongue and bodies in deep passionate movements. To hell with the hospital. They were on vacation.

The End

**a/n: A complete heartfelt thank you to all that read this fic and an even greater thank you to all those that sent your encouraging comments (a special thanks again to Merlin71, SpreadTheWord, and Nikelodean). I will never rule out the possibility of a sequel since this one was never supposed to happen, but as of right now I have no ideas. I had a fantastic time writing this one and I hope it was as enjoyable for you as it was for me.**

**For those that regularly follow my work, coming very very soon is the sequel to Take The Ducklings Bowling. This one is so far turning out to be every bit as fun and fluffy as the original. Don't want to give away the plot, but it will be every bit as unpredictable as the original. The added twist to this one will involve Huddy with Wilson thrown in for fun. Not that type of fun! Clean your minds:) Anyway, watch for it very soon if you are interested.**


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